Today Dr. Seuss is known and honored worldwide though he died in 1991. Reading is celebrated all across America on the March 2nd birthday of Ted Geisel! What a legacy. Dr. Seuss was actually the middle name of Theodor Seuss Geisel!
Dr. Seuss NOW
Every Spring all across the United States a promotion called “Read Across America” honors the memory of Dr. Seuss on his birthday. Many school children across Mississippi are becoming quite knowledgeable about the life and work of Dr. Seuss. Children of all ages can enjoy or appreciate something from the creative genius of Dr. Seuss. To make a Dr. Seuss-type -rhyme, consider Dr. Seuss from NOW to THEN and BACK AGAIN!
Dr. Seuss THEN
Theodore Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts (1904), attended and graduated from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire (1922-1925). He attended Lincoln College in Oxford, England (1925-1926) and then traveled for a time in Europe before returning home to live in New York (1927-1943). His first book for children is still my favorite, “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” (1937).
During World War II, Geisel served in the Army Signal Corp. (1943-1946) and won awards for his educational and informational films. In 1946 he moved permanently to California and in 1948 to La Jolla.
Saturday theater matinees once had cartoons and news before the feature movies. As a preteen I remember enjoying the unusual animated cartoon, “Gerald McGoing-Boing.”
Dr. Seuss NOW
Now in book form, I have had fun reading “Gerald McBoing Boing!” to many groups of children. (The book is based on the 1951 Academy Award-winning motion picture by Dr. Seuss; pictures adapted by Mel Crawford. NY: Random House © 1950, 1978, 2000). Children enjoy participating in “Gerald’s sounds.”
Dr. Seuss THEN and BACK AGAIN
Dr. Seuss wrote several beginning readers during the 1960’s using the pseudonym, Theo LeSieg, which is Geisel spelled backward! (Others illustrated these books). Since these early days, several feature films, many other books by and about Geisel and toy cats and hats, elephants and more are available worldwide to honor the career and life of Dr. Seuss! Some of the characters of Dr. Seuss have developed a life of their own: the Cat in the hat; Horton the elephant, and the Grinch.
Visit your library, browse through all the books of Dr. Seuss and choose your favorites. Also enjoy these websites: Seussville.com and www.nea.org/readacross.
In 1988 while I was serving as a school librarian in Louisiana, my husband Bill and I attended the New Orleans Museum of Art exhibit of the work of Dr. Seuss touring from San Diego Museum of Art to exhibits in Iowa, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, Maryland and New Orleans.
See the photo of the exhibition catalog, “Dr. Seuss from Then to Now.”
Before marriage, after graduating from MSCW in Columbus I was working for the Natchez-Adams School district and was actually teaching first graders about “Dick, Jane, Sally, and Spot” from the Scott, Foresman, and Company readers to four reading-groups before lunch. What a refreshing change like a breath of fresh air when the books by Dr. Seuss were published!
So we say Hooray for Books and Hooray for Ted Geisel. Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!
