Top 3 Reasons Why We Love Dr. Seuss Books
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I would read them in the rain and on a train. I would read them with a fox. I would read them in a box…
Dr. Seuss was part of my staple reading diet as a child. I spent a couple of years living in New Jersey and went to elementary school there. I started in Grade 1 and went through to Grade 3 before coming back to the UK. It was in the USA where I was introduced to the wonderful world of Dr. Seuss, so there is a fondness there. I remember being enthralled by the rhymes, illustrations, and having a desire to read the whole collection. I still have my Green Eggs and Ham from when I was younger, complete with price sticker in dollars.
What a joy it is to rediscover Dr. Seuss with my own children and find titles I was less familiar with. Here are our top three reasons of why we love books by Dr. Seuss (who was not actually a medical doctor… unless being a doctor of words counts?). His first name was also William - who knew?!
They are fun for all the family
The joyful rhyme, the funny words, and the deeper truths hidden within them make this my number one reason for loving Dr. Seuss. My youngest benefited from Dr. Seuss’s ABCs and my son asked me to read all of the ones we have over and over again for a while. He particularly enjoyed The Sneetches and Other Stories. I didn’t discover Oh, The Places You’ll Go until I was grown up, and that book has some great life lessons in there. I particularly love ‘the waiting place’. We don’t want to end up there, but we certainly all recognise what it means to wait.
One of my favourite quotes in Oh, The Places You’ll Go is:
Wherever you fly, you’ll be best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.
Except when you don’t.
Because, sometimes, you won’t.The joy of reading them aloud
We are a BIG read-aloud family. I read a lot to the children morning, noon, and night. I need to enjoy reading the books too if possible, and reading the rhymes from Seuss is just the best. Fox in Socks in particular builds up to some fabulous tongue twisters. I try and read them as fast as I can and it’s challenging and hilarious!
Unusual words and character names
I mean kids just love silliness. And adults that have any sense of humour at all can at least appreciate silly. I love it that Seuss rhymes stars with thars and beaches and Sneetches. And who can not love the story of How The Grinch Stole Christmas? Grinch, a character who was determined to stop Christmas from coming in Who-ville discovers that Christmas means more than presents. It’s a story of heart transformation (literally!). Then we have the Cat in the Hat who knows how to cause a disturbance of outrageous fun for two bored children, and put it right again at the last minute, and the Plain Belly and Star Bellied Sneetches who find themselves at the mercy of the sneaky sales tactics of Sylvester McMonkey McBean. I like to believe that Seuss enjoyed writing and imagining these characters as much as we enjoy reading about them.
