# Seuss books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 8, 2007, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331 "2007-02-08T07:57:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331/21 "2007-02-09T10:06:32Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] My very favorite as a child was _Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now_, which it seems nobody else really read. It was the one I made my dad read over and over and over and over and over and over and over… And Marvin went. [/QUOTE] It’s one of my favourites - I just like the way you go through the whole book thinking the speaker is getting increasingly _angry_ with Marvin, when in fact, he’s just telling him it’s time to go, which Marvin cheerfully accepts. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331/22 "2007-02-09T10:37:39Z")
[QUOTE=mobo85] Nope- first published 1955. (One of my favorite lesser Seusses, by the way- I love the idea of an extended alphabet.) Posthumous Dr. Seuss books: _Daisy-Head Mayzie_ (1995, from an unpublished manuscript) _My Many-Colored Days_ (1996, from an unpublished manuscript) _Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!_ (1998, from an manuscript left unfinished at his death, completed by Jack Prelutsky) _Gerald McBoing-Boing_ (2000, adaptation of a short subject written by Geisel) [/QUOTE] It seems I was thinking of _Hooray for Diffendoofer Day_. Not sure why I made that mistake (neither book is in my collection; maybe someone showed me both at the same time). ---
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331/23 "2007-02-09T12:20:57Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] Some are a bit weaker than others. _I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew_ is a bit of a struggle sometimes [/QUOTE] Oh, I love Solla Sollew - especially the _Midwinter Jickers_. Be warened - I do not know a young child who has not been spooked by the story “What was I scared of?” from “The Skeetches”. “To think that I saw it on Mulberry St” is a beautiful, perfect story. “The Lorax” makes me cry every time I read it, “Horton Hatches the Egg”. oh my. “Marvin K Mooney”, and of course his saddest book - “Hop on Pop”. I love Dr Seuss so. mm ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331/24 "2007-02-09T12:37:33Z")
[QUOTE=mamboman] Be warened - I do not know a young child who has not been spooked by the story “What was I scared of?” [/QUOTE] That was always my favourite as a child. I always make sure to read it completely in character with my own kids. Solla Sollew has its moments; I guess it’s just not at the top of my list. I don’t think there are any Seuss books I would discard entirely. ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331/25 "2007-02-09T14:55:40Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] My very favorite as a child was _Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now_, which it seems nobody else really read. It was the one I made my dad read over and over and over and over and over and over and over… And Marvin went. [/QUOTE] I remember that book! My kindergarten teacher used to read it to our class. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331/26 "2007-02-09T16:06:13Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] My very favorite as a child was _Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now_, which it seems nobody else really read. It was the one I made my dad read over and over and over and over and over and over and over… And Marvin went. [/QUOTE] Ha! Me too! You can go by plane, you can go by fish. You can go by Krunk-Car, if you wish! Time might have warped my memory, but I’m sure my dad could recite the whole thing, given the number of times I made him read it out to me. I was also fond of The Foot Book. Left foot, right foot, feet feet feet. How many, many feet you meet! > [@According to Pliny](#): > > And the Ooblick one, forget the title, where it rained green gunk. Bartholomeow and the Oobleck? We did that as a play in school. And on a completely unrelated note, it inspired a friend of mine to name her cat Bartholo-meow. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331/27 "2007-02-09T16:27:40Z")
I can also add that my daughter will, if she is stalling for time before bed, ask us to read _One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish_ which is pretty long, for a children’s book. ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331/28 "2007-02-09T18:07:41Z")
By the way, some of the Seuss books – I think the _ABC Book_ and also the _Foot Book_ – have been altered or simplified in the board-book format. If you’re a purist, you might want to look for the older editions of these books, with their bona fide infant-destroyable paper pages. In general, I like Seuss’s older stuff. I find with some of the newer stuff, like the Lorax, that the preachy note predominates. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331/29 "2007-02-09T22:13:05Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] My very favorite as a child was _Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now_, which it seems nobody else really read. It was the one I made my dad read over and over and over and over and over and over and over… And Marvin went. [/QUOTE] The same thing happened to [my](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=8242611#post8242611) copy of that book! ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331/30 "2007-02-09T22:24:15Z")
I could probably recite “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish” entirely from memory. Wanna test me? One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish Black Fish Blue Fish Old Fish New Fish This one has a little car This one has a little star My! What a lot of fish there are… And of course, my favorite page: See what we found In the park in the dark We will take him home We will call him Clark We will take him home He will grow and grow Will our Mother like this? We don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331/31 "2007-02-09T23:26:52Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] My very favorite as a child was _Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now_, which it seems nobody else really read. [/QUOTE] During Watergate, Art Buchwald reprinted the entire text of this book (with Seuss’s permission), replacing each instance of “Marvin K. Mooney” with “Richard M. Nixon.” Unfortunately, “George W. Bush” doesn’t fit the same rhythm. ---
**Author:** ![DurbBook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@DurbBook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DurbBook)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331/32 "2007-02-09T23:50:28Z")
I loved _The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins_, but it always gave my mom the All-Overs. Don’t forget the national read-aloud at 2:36 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, March 2, Dr. Seuss’s birthday, and the day after the 50th anniversary of the publication of _The Cat in the Hat._ We’re having a writing contest (and a drawing contest for the preliterate) at the bookstore, and we’ll serve the pink ‘bathtub cake’ to commemorate the happy events. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331/33 "2007-02-09T23:53:28Z")
[QUOTE=DurbBook] Don’t forget the national read-aloud at 2:36 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, March 2, Dr. Seuss’s birthday, and the day after the 50th anniversary of the publication of _The Cat in the Hat._ [/QUOTE] That’s right- the reason it is at 2:36 is because there are 236 unique words used in the book. For more information, visit the Cat’s official [website](http://www.seussville.com/CITH_50th/) (warning: music- albeit appropriate music). ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2007, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331/34 "2007-02-10T01:54:35Z")
Check out [this filk!](http://www.tomsmithonline.com/lyrics/500_hats.htm)🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2007, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331/35 "2007-02-10T02:31:22Z")
[QUOTE=phungi] _The Butter Battle Book_ is a little-known post-cold-war gem, . [/QUOTE] Actually, it was very much a [cold war gem](http://www.amazon.com/Butter-Battle-Book-Notable-Classic/dp/0394865804/sr=8-2/qid=1171074572/ref=pd_bbs_2/102-2339629-5389730?ie=UTF8&s=books), published in 1984. My parents got it for us kids on a trip to DC to a big anti-war conference: the book had just come out, and it was how I first understood the nuclear arms race. I’ve not seen the book in 20 years, but it still chills me to remember the final page. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2007, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331/36 "2007-02-10T12:18:02Z")
[QUOTE=blinkingblinking] Anyone else? [/QUOTE] When you say “Dr. Seuss books”, you must clarify what this means. Dr Seuss books could mean books under his name and/or books under the pen name Theo Lesig and/or “I Can Read Books” by various authors; yet, published under the “Cat in the Hat” logo. By the way…when reading “Fox in Socks” aloud, use extreme caution! 😃 - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Fetchund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b2d939/32.png) [@Fetchund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fetchund)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2007, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331/37 "2007-02-10T19:03:06Z")
[QUOTE=nashiitashii] My favorite growing up was The Sleep Book. However, I cannot remember having a Seuss book that I did not like. (I did, however, have a limited collection of them.) [/QUOTE] Oh, the Sleep Book! I can still recite most of it - and I have the copy my dad used to read to us when getting us to settle down. It makes me yawn in a most delightful way just thinking of it! ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2007, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331/38 "2007-02-10T22:42:32Z")
[QUOTE=Jinx] “I Can Read Books” by various authors; yet, published under the “Cat in the Hat” logo. [/QUOTE] Nitpick: “I Can Read” is the name used for beginning readers published by HarperCollins. Random House’s line of beginner books is, um, “Beginner Books.” You’re probably confusing the two because of Beginner Books’s logo, which depicts the Cat in the Hat and the words “I can read it all by myself.” (Dr. Seuss was the president of Beginner Books, incidentially.) ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2007, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331/39 "2007-02-10T23:33:33Z")
[QUOTE=Jinx] By the way…when reading “Fox in Socks” aloud, use extreme caution! 😃 [/QUOTE] My favorite! It just builds and builds and builds… I was a reading clinician a few years ago, and one of my students would beg for this book whenever we had a free moment. If you can get through it without any mistakes, your audience will be as proud of you as you are. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2007, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331/40 "2007-02-11T01:44:32Z")
OK, what about _There’s a Wocket in My Pocket!_ - I don’t own a copy of this book, but I have read it. I think it’s probably the least impressive. The artwork is just fine, but to my memory, it was just a collection of pointless, contrived rhymes (‘there’s a zamp in my lamp, behind the curtain, there’s a jertain’). Am I forgetting something wonderful about this title? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seuss-books/391331.md?page=3)