Was Dr Seuss on something?

Published on August 30, 2004 By trina_p In Humor

I was reading to Elana before she went to bed tonight - Natalie's school had a fete on the weekend and Val (nick's mum) was in charge of the bookstall - so she gave us some of the books that were left for Elana.
One of them was One fish, two fish, red fish blue fish. -- Which I'm sure I must have read as a kid but I didn't really remember it -- I know I only had one Dr Seuss book as a child -- and I only liked one -- and they weren't the same -- I had the Cat in the hat comes back and I loved - still do Are you my mother.

So I'm reading this book to Elana because parents around the world through the ages have read Seuss to their children and I can't believe the nonsense I'm reading -- "But we know a man called Mr Gump Mr Gump has a seven hump Wump. So... if you like to go Bump! Bump! just jump on the hump of the Wump of Gump

What the???

Zans for Cans and Yinks that drink pink ink and yellow socks to box your gox

Sigh - I'm going to buy Possum Magic and John Brown Rose & The Midnight Cat (but not till she's 6 or older -- there's alot of themes in that book) - two of my favourites -- that make sense

And for a rhyming book with a moral I'll get her the Elephant & the Bad Baby

No more Seuss -- its all very nonsensical and makes me wonder what he was on - I wonder if he knew Lewis Carroll

Comments

SSG Geezer

on Aug 30, 2004

I saw some interviews with the "Good Dr" when i lived in San Diego. he seemed to really not like children very much.
His multi lingual dictionaries are good though. The books are best for teaching your kids phonics not english.

Gene Nash

on Aug 30, 2004

I've never read "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish." I don't think "Cat in the Hat," "Horton Hears a Who," "Green Eggs and Ham," or "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" are as nonsensical as that excerpt you quoted.

As for the question you posed, as far as I know the only thing he was on was Mrs. Seuss.

Muggaz

on Aug 30, 2004

- I would argue that a great percentage of authors and musicians have dabbled so to say, at some point in their lives - and if some dude who came up with a cat in a hat wasn't reeeeeeallll fuckin' high on drugs, then my name isn't Muggaz

BAM!!!

Gene Nash

on Aug 30, 2004

I wonder if he knew Lewis Carroll

(Seuss) seemed to really not like children very much.

By contrast, Lewis Carroll may have liked children a little too much.

Teegstar

on Aug 30, 2004

i LOVE dr seuss!! (are you surprised?

) the books are hilarious, and the cat in the hat is really cheeky. i think kids just love to hear the rhyming sounds... maybe it's because as a kid so many things are so new and foreign that they like rhymes because they seem familiar.

Texas Wahine

on Aug 30, 2004

trina: I adore Mem Fox! Great choice!

One of my favorite children's books is Tough Boris . . . have you read that one? A bit old for Elana maybe, but an excellent book for teaching about loss and grief. We also have Koala Lou and Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partidge. Great books. I remember reading Possum Magic, but I don't think we have it . . . I may have to go buy it. One Dr. Seuss one I liked was Oh the Places You Will Go. It was a cute book.

trina_p

on Aug 30, 2004

Elana got Wilfrid Gordon McDonal Partridge for Christmas - she was 2weeks old (but it has more to do with the name of the book - hint Trina P)

I Love Possum Magic - Grandma Poss and Poss are the best - she goes invisible so she has to eat all this Australian stuff to become normal -- including a Vegemite sandwich!!
Mem Fox wrote this really great book about reading to your kids - Reading Magic

Another book I can't wait to read Elana is Hazel Edwards - There's a Hippotamus on our roof eating cake.

And I hope she loves Robin Klein and Colin Thiele as much as I did.

I'd love her to get into Narnia - but that's a ways off but Elana loves books - she'll turn the pages and point to things and hold them and make it look like she's actually concentrating on the words.

Theophilus Thistler

on Aug 31, 2004

I was getting into my Seuss books today after reading your article today

It was fun to check them out again!

Speaking of Narnia.. my little brother saw some of those books in my room and had a bit of a browse... now he's fully into them (which is way cool in my books). Especially the other day when he rang me up to tell me he had been readig them and how excited he sounded telling me about the stories he'd been reading

kingbee

on Aug 31, 2004

think of how much poorer the planet would be without the good doctor's books of silly rhymes. specifically, 'green eggs & ham'.

seuss books employ words that beginning readers can easily sound and read; kids too young to read can easily memorize both the sounds and the cadence. much more importantly, if there was no 'green eggs & ham', viewers of saturday night live, season 17, episode 308 (1991) would have had to settle for something other than the rev jesse jackson turning to that evenings lesson and exercising his full court press preacher oratory power to so very forcefully & righteously proclaim:

i like green eggs & ham
i do! i like them, sam i am!

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