I recently started reading Dr. Seuss’ awesome ABC book to my 20-month old daughter. My parents read this book to me when I was a kid and I remember it fondly. In fact, I actually still remembered much of the text pretty well and could even recite many of the pages without looking. However one page that stumped me was for the letter ‘I’. In the book I am reading to my daughter it reads
**Big I, Little I
What begins with I?
Itchy itchy Ichabod
I…I… I**
the thing is, I was certain that the last two lines were
Ichabod is itchy
And so am I
And the reason I remember this so well is that whenever we read this page, my dad would tickle me and I would burst into hysterical giggles.
Does anyone else remember this line the way I do, or am I imagining things? Any idea why the publishers might have changed it?
The copy I have from about nine years ago is Itchy, itchy Ichabod, I, I, I.
I had a baby who responded well to singing, but I quickly ran out of things to sing. Then I discovered I could sing that book to the alphabet song/Twinkle, Twinkle tune. Six or seven times through Dr. Suess’ alphabet while pacing the floors and he’d settle right down…
The full book has Ichabod is itchy, so am I. There was also the smaller, board book that had the shorter version (and many other changes throughout). At least, that’s what my kids’ versions had – two versions, full paper version, shortened board book.
I went off about abridged board books when I first started buying them for my niece a year or so ago. They totally took out the best bits of Go Dog, Go! (the “do you like my hat?” gags)
Board books are a catch 22. They’re so great for kids who like to reach up and grab at the book (keeps them from ruining it) but there’s just not enough room to put in all the words.
It’s best not to buy your childhood favorites or classics as board books. Stick to “Moo, Baa, La La La” and other stuff that’s written exclusively for board books and relish the day when you can start reading un-abridged classics to your kids.
Wow, I had no idea that they abridged these. Seems pretty strange for ABC though, since there are so few words to start with. But that makes me want to go back home and dig out my copy of the classic version (bought in the early 1970s).
“So am I” is definitely the way I remember it. I could probably recite the book from memory with very few mistakes.
I even remember the picture of Ichabod and (presumably) “I” scratching themselves with their arms curved inward like chicken wings (sort of - can’t really think how to better describe the pose).
WTF? That’s not even an abridged version. It’s not shorter; it’s just a straight-up modification. They sure didn’t run out of room. Here’s a picture of the real board book, and here’s the “I” portion, modified with the original book’s text, to scale.
[sub]Why, yes, I do have too much time on my hands. Why do you ask?[/sub]
Maybe they wanted everything to end in “A…a…A”, “B…b…B”, etc. Are there any other exceptions that they might have changed? (It’s been a long time since I read that book!)
I thought of that too. But in the board book the page on ‘N’ does not end with “N…n…N” but rather with “[something I can’t remember], Nightshirt, Nose.”
Just confirmed “Icabod is itchy//So am I.” in our paper version of ABC. Don’t know the publish date, the only date I can find inside is 1963, and I highly doubt this book is that old.
