# Richard Scarry versus Mercer Mayer versus Stan and Jan Berenstein versus Dr. Seuss **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 1, 2006, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828 "2006-07-01T01:39:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2006, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828/21 "2006-07-01T12:39:24Z")
[QUOTE=MrDibble] #1 - **Edward Gorey** [/QUOTE] Perfect example of someone suggesting a writer/illustrator I wish I’d thought of. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2006, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828/22 "2006-07-01T15:04:27Z")
[QUOTE=Schuyler] As a parent reading the books to kids (6 & 7 y.o, but mostly at this point to the 6 y.o. child), I like the Dr. Seuss books better - they are the best written, and I like the word play - and they also have themes that I enjoy considering from an adult perspective (Sneeches, Butter Battle, etc.). I find the illustrations in Richard Scarry to be the most rich - there is always something else going on besides the main focus of the panel, but they aren’t as enjoyable to read to kids, although I think that I prefered his work when I was a kid (oh, so long ago). [/QUOTE] This is the correct answer. You can now close the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2006, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828/23 "2006-07-01T17:00:01Z")
All I gotta say is that its pretty easy to rhyme when you make up your own words. I’m looking at you, Dr.! Half them damn characters didn’t even have feet! “Where the Wild Things Are” (or whatever that was) was always my favorite. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2006, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828/24 "2006-07-01T17:48:34Z")
[QUOTE=amarinth] Chris Van Allsburg - sadly, they keep making crappy movies out of his books, but the books are good if you forget that they were ever filmed. “The Z Was Zapped” is a great A-B-C book,not as good as Uncle Shelby’s, but you can give it to children. [/QUOTE] Van Allsburg is a great illustrator (though I prefer the more dynamic, overtly imaginative stuff of Dr. Seuss Sendak and the like), but his story-telling and writing voice are _terrible_ - maudlin, uninspired, predictable and cliche (please envision a diacritical mark wherever you’d like to see one). “Polar Express” was a bad movie because the idea was so thin and bland. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2006, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828/25 "2006-07-01T18:25:52Z")
[QUOTE=Askia] [ **RealityChuck.** When you consider Seuss as a writer alone, I absolutely agree no one comes close to his being #1. When you consider his skills as an illustrator, tho – eh. I’m not so sure. Did Seuss ever draw backgrounds?. [/QUOTE] What does drawing backgrounds have anything to do with it? Solely from the point of view of the images on the page, he’s still way ahead. I agree that Chris Van Allberg is also a great one. And all Richard Scarry did was cute; his characters all looked the same and have no personality at all. He’s really the George Wunder of children’s books. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2006, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828/26 "2006-07-01T18:58:07Z")
Definitely Seuss. He is definitely the most well known modern children’s author, and innovated the genre in a way that nobody else did. ---
**Author:** ![Schuyler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/54ee81/32.png) [@Schuyler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schuyler)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2006, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828/27 "2006-07-01T20:00:24Z")
[QUOTE=Homebrew] This is the correct answer. You can now close the thread. [/QUOTE] Woo hoo - vindication!! Or something!! That’s 2 votes for … well, 2 votes for whatever it was that I said. 🙂 Thanks, **Homebrew**. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2006, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828/28 "2006-07-01T22:50:35Z")
My absolutest favoritest ever children’s book was _One Monster After Another_ by Mercer Mayer. It was absurdist, had funny monsters with funny faces, and gave ridiculous a ridiculously complicated explanation for something as simple as sending a letter in the mail. But it was the only Mercer Mayer book I think I ever read. I also loved the Richard Scarry books — I pored over every page for hours — but I couldn’t tell you a damn thing about any of the stories he wrote. On the other hand, I can remember whole pages of text and illustrations from Seuss. In that respect, he made the greatest impression on me as a child reader. Gotta give it to the doctor. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2006, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828/29 "2006-07-01T23:07:47Z")
[QUOTE=MrDibble] #1 - **Edward Gorey** (well, they’re \*sort-of \*kid’s books, in the Struwelpieter tradition) [/QUOTE] I remember liking Sendak, Scarry and Seuss. But as illustration I thought _The Utter Zoo_ was the bee’s knees as a youngster, so Gorey has to get my vote. - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828/30 "2006-07-02T03:04:40Z")
[QUOTE=Askia] **Muffin.** I liked his drawings, too, but Shepard was not the writer of Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne was. [/QUOTE] Whoops, my bad. I misread writer/illustrator as either one or the other or both. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828/31 "2006-07-02T03:21:30Z")
P.D Eastman, with this vote based solely and completely on the book, _Go, Dog. Go!_, which I forced my parents, uncles, grandmother and older sisters to read out loud to me over and over again when I was a child. I still recite “Go, dogs. Go! The light is green now.” at traffic lights. Damn. I want a copy of that book to read now. ☹ Dr. Suess is second place, for _Fox in Socks_ and _One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish_. ---
**Author:** ![Cyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@Cyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyn)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828/32 "2006-07-02T04:02:58Z")
Dr. Suess, Mercer Mayer But Maurice Sendak and Shel Silverstein on the alternate list. In the night kitchen… ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828/33 "2006-07-02T05:04:17Z")
Scarry, but most especially the story **Uncle Willy and the Pie-Rats**. ---
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828/34 "2006-07-02T05:18:12Z")
I’m amazed there is any discussion on this at all. I had always taken it for granted that Suess is to children books what Hendrix was to guitar, Stanley Kubrick to film, Pele to football and Werner Klemperer to portraying bumbling Prison Camp Commandants. I really just consider him peerless and all those other guys who get mentioned, well, they are just guys who wrote a few books. I see now perhaps I was being a little insular. Wow! Consider my eyes opened to the diversity of opinion in the world. Time, perhaps, for me to do some re-reading… mm ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828/35 "2006-07-02T05:35:00Z")
Out of the four, I’ll go with Seuss, then Scarry. But my vote really goes to Sendak; Scarry is fun, Seuss is clever and fun, but Sendak is an artist. He also did more than 12 books, but since he puts huge effort into most of his works, he’s slower than the mass-producing Mayer and Berenstains. (But, I do love _A boy, a dog, and a frog._) However, my own true love is Edward Ardizzone. And Edward Gorey too. Oh, and Garth Williams. And especially Trina Schart Hyman, oh wow, she’s a goddess. And Lisbeth Zwerger! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828/36 "2006-07-02T17:45:26Z")
Seuss is indisputably the top of the list, in any category in which he qualifies. Those thinking that he wasn’t any good with detail need to read _Wacky Wednesday_: The book is little more than a frame on which to hang the pictures, each of which contains a number of subtly wrong details. And even if one can criticize his drawing skills, his writing is more than enough to make up for it. I’m not sure the Berenstans count, here… Wasn’t one of them the author, and one the illustrator? Just because they’re related (I’m not clear whether they’re married or siblings) and usually work together, does not make them one person. > [@](#): > > But as punishment to me, it opens up the door wide open for the poo-poo jokes of Dav Pilkey. Publishing is harsh. Don’t judge Dav Pilkey until you’ve read [_God Bless the Gargoyles_](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0152021043/002-3484710-0183223?v=glance&n=283155). He’s capable of a lot more than just _Captain Underpants_. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828/37 "2006-07-02T18:12:27Z")
[QUOTE=Clockwork And Candy] This is actually a _very_ good question and I hate you for making me choose. Which is why I’m going with the person you left out; Maurice Sendak. **Outside Over There** may be one of my favourite picture books. [/QUOTE] I recently went to a special [Sendak](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Sendak) exhibition at the Tampa Museum of Art. I remembered Sendak only from _Where the Wild Things Are_ and _Really Rosie._ I had no idea what a wide range of stuff he’d done – and how deeply disturbing some of it was. The plaques next to the framed artwork explained how a great deal of his work was metaphors about the Holocaust. There was a whole room devoted to his work on a revival of the Holocaust-era opera [_Brundibar,_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brundibar) originally produced at the Theresienstadt ghetto. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828/38 "2006-07-02T19:28:34Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] I’m not sure the Berenstans count, here… Wasn’t one of them the author, and one the illustrator? Just because they’re related (I’m not clear whether they’re married or siblings) and usually work together, does not make them one person. [/QUOTE] Technically true. However I’m a big fan of longtime collaborators and since they both wrote and were trained illustrators, I figured there’s so much creative cross-pollination to be considered as one. I did not realize until i went to double check my facts just now that Stan Berenstain died last year at age 82. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828/39 "2006-07-02T23:11:31Z")
[QUOTE=Kat] P.D Eastman, with this vote based solely and completely on the book, _Go, Dog. Go!_, which I forced my parents, uncles, grandmother and older sisters to read out loud to me over and over again when I was a child. I still recite “Go, dogs. Go! The light is green now.” at traffic lights. Damn. I want a copy of that book to read now. ☹ [/QUOTE] Did you see the [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=368217) on that fine work from a couple months ago? ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828/40 "2006-07-03T00:21:52Z")
[QUOTE=Kat] P.D Eastman, with this vote based solely and completely on the book, Go, Dog. Go! [/QUOTE] He also wrote and illustrated the classic _Are You My Mother?_, but surprisingly he didn’t write many others, not making Askia’s cutoff. By the way, I like your hat. I would like to throw into the ring Daniel Pinkwater. He must have close to 20 picture books, in addition to his classic young adult novels, such as _Young Adult Novel._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-scarry-versus-mercer-mayer-versus-stan-and-jan-berenstein-versus-dr-seuss/362828.md?page=3)