I, like many, many, many others, love Dr Seuss books. I’m wondering not only what people’s favourite Seuss books are, but also their “lost treasures” - the book people love that perhaps aren’t as well known as the “Cat in The Hats” or "Green Eggs and Ham"s of this world.
My “lost treasure” is Horton Hears a Who, an adventure which has lived in the shadow of the plucky pachyderm’s egg hatching eggsploits too long!
C’mon Seuss lovers, lets share…
mm
Yertle the Turtle!
It’s a Seussian call for the workers of the world to rise up and throw down their oppressors. I tear up a little every time I read the final lines:
“And today the great Yertle, that Marvelous he,
Is King of the Mud. That is all he can see.
And the turtles, of course… all the turtles are free
As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.”
On Beyond Zebra!
By far the best Dr. Seuss book, and high on my favorite books list. Few people remember it or maybe just few people have read it.
This is, and has been since I was old enough to read, my favorite Seuss book by far.
My wife’s favorite is Happy Birthday To You!. I have read it to her every year on her birthday for the last 16 years.
I also want to give props to Ten Apples Up On Top! which was published under the name Theo. LeSieg.
“You cannot stop our apple fun!”
That line cracks me up every time.
The Butter Battle Book is a dark, cold war apocalyptic story that breaks the mold of Seuss’ books in its message but reads/rhymes like the others.
Also, McElligott’s Pool is a great one.
A later work is You’re Only Old Once!, a no doubt autobiographical tale of a senior’s experiences with doctors and clinics. Every doctor’s office should have a copy.
Hooper Humperdink…Not Him! is a great book (although there was a time I hated it). It was my daughter’s favorite, and I read it so often that I could recite it from memory. But it was invaluable for teaching her her letters–she learned them readily just from hearing this story over and over (and over and over and over).
Does the Mad magazine parody count?
Husband and Wife,
Mother and Father,
Both of them married,
But not to each other!
I liked “Oh the places you’ll go” best of all. “Fox in Sox” was a close second.
I’m partial to the rejected Dr. Suess Books. 
I’ve never read this one, let alone seen a copy. It’s an ambition of mine to one day track it down.
mm
I have one on my bookshelf and a half dozen on the shelves where I work. Where do you live? Want I should send you one? (It’s a fun story)
My favourites are Oh the Places You’ll Go!. It makes for an excellent OE present, I’ve found.
And another vote for Yertle the Turtle. I think I have a hardback copy in a box somewhere, but I havn’t seen it in print for a while… was that the one that had the Star-Belly Sneetches as well?
In addition to hearing a Who, Horton also Hatched and Egg. I love Horton. (Somewhere in one of the boxes of stuff that never got unpacked, I have an 8-track player and a tape of “Horton Hatches an Egg.” I think that I received the tape when I was about 5 years old.)
Also, I don’t know whether it’s a stand-alone book or one chapter of another Seuss compilation, but “Oliver Boliver Butt” is one of my favorites. Unfortunately, I have no clue what the story itself is about. I’ve just always recalled “Oliver Boliver Butt” as one of the most-fun-ever phrases to say out loud.
Somewhere or another, I also have a boxful of Seuss books from back in the day when my mother taught Head Start - Yertle, Green Eggs, the Cat, and about a dozen other titles. They’re in pretty rough condition, but they’re ragged because several years’ worth of kids learned to read from them.
I read to my kids from the old hardback Yertle I had as a kid. I think poor Mack (the voice of the turtle proletariat) is too lefty for today’s tastes.
I have the Sneetches book too. It also contains Too Many Daves, The North-Going and the South-Going Zax and the Green Pants With Nobody Inside Them, which, I must say, is the absolute creepiest story Dr. Seuss ever wrote.
And speaking of creepy … the 10,000 Fingers of Dr. T!
Oh … and how about The King’s Stilts and The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins? If I Ran the Zoo? If I Ran the Circus? To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street?
Quick, Henry, the Flit!
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
The Lorax
Ah - “Too Many Daves!” That’s the story that includes “Oliver Boliver Butt.” :smack: I wish I could claim that the title slipped my mind because I’m preoccupied with something really important (curing cancer, manned flights to Jupiter, figuring out where extra socks disappear to on laundry day.) I’ll just claim early senility. It’s hereditary. I got it from my kids.
I second The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, which was his second book.
I remember liking On Beyond Zebra quite a bit, particularly for the fake letters that came after the normal 26. But I haven’t read it since I was a kid.
For reference sake, here’s his completely bibliography, taken from nea.org:
1930s
1937 And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
1938 The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
1939 The King’s Stilts
1940 The Seven Lady Godivas
1940s
1940 Horton Hatches The Egg
1947 McElligot’s Pool
1948 Thidwick, the Big-Hearted Moose
1949 Bartholomew and the Oobleck
1950s
1950 If I Ran the Zoo
1953 Scrambled Eggs Super!
1954 Horton Hears a Who!
1955 On Beyond Zebra!
1956 If I Ran the Circus
1957 The Cat in the Hat
1957 How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
1958 Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories
1958 The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
1959 Happy Birthday to You!
1960s
1960 One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
1960 Green Eggs and Ham
1961 The Sneetches and Other Stories
1961 Ten Apples Up on Top!
1962 Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book
1963 Dr. Seuss’s ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book
1963 Hop on Pop
1965 Fox in Socks
1965 I Wish that I Had Duck Feet
1966 Come Over to My House
1967 The Cat in the Hat Songbook
1968 The Foot Book
1968 The Eye Book
1969 I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! and Other Stories
1969 My Book About Me
1970s
1970 I Can Draw It Myself by Me, Myself
1970 Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?
1971 The Lorax
1971 I Can Write! A Book by Me, Myself
1972 In a People House
1972 Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!
1973 Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?
1973 Shape of Me and Other Stuff
1973 The Pop-up Mice of Mr. Brice
1974 Wacky Wednesday
1974 There’s a Wocket in My Pocket!
1974 Great Day for Up!
1975 Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!
1975 Would You Rather Be a Bullfrog?
1975 Because a Little Bug Went Ka-Choo!
1976 The Cat’s Quizzer: Are You Smarter than the Cat in the Hat?
1976 Hooper Humperdink… ? Not Him!
1977 Please Try to Remember the First of Octember!
1978 I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!
1979 Oh, Say Can You Say?
1980s
1980 Maybe You Should Fly a Jet! Maybe You Should Be a Vet
1981 The Tooth Book
1982 Hunches in Bunches
1984 The Butter Battle Book
1986 You’re Only Old Once!
1990s
1990 Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
1994 Daisy Head Mayzie
1998 Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!
The Lorax
The Sneetches and Other Stories
And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
Thidwick The Big Hearted Moose
There’s A Wocket in My Pocket!
Please Try to Remember the First of Octember
Argh! I forgot:
The Big Brag