Dr. Seuss and All That Jazz

During the summer of 2009 my mom had obtained a treasure trove of sixteen Dr. Seuss books at a garage sale and stored them away.  Grandma found the books and gave them to us shortly after mom past away this past fall.  As with any loss of a loved one, it takes time to be able to dig out personal items that have connections to the loved one as was the case here.  

Last week I rediscovered those books when I was tidying up our basement.  Pumpkin has fallen in love with quite a few of the books.   

His favorite one of the bunch is Green Eggs and Ham.  I think this fits my son perfectly; he absolutely hates to try any new foods.  It cracks me up that he enjoys the book so much and wants the character to eat the green eggs and ham, but he will not do the same thing.  Spaghetti- Forget about it!  Homemade macaroni and cheese- Nope!  Hamburger- No way!  Carrots- Yuck!  I know with time, he will warm up to new foods, but at times it can be a challenge to us parents.

Another favorite of Pumpkin is Bears In the Night.  He likes to help me read this book.  “Out of bed”  “To the window” “Down the tree”  I have him fill-in the underlined words and pick different ones throughout the book.  If he needs help, I point to the object.  He has lots of fun with this book and loves the source of the mysterious noise.

His first vivid enjoyment of Dr. Seuss inspired books was Go. Dog. Go!.   He fell in love with this book when he was 18 months old.  We were visiting family along the west coast and they had a copy of this book on their shelf.  We read it almost every day during our visit.  He could quote parts of the “Do you like my hat?” pages.  As soon as we arrived home, I ventured up to a locally owned family store and bought a copy for my little pumpkin.

Princess is not quite as impressed with Dr. Seuss yet.  A few books she gave up on quite early in the reading process (One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish), but seems to enjoy In A People House and The Cat and The Hat. 

I like Dr. Seuss books for a variety of reasons- some teach lessons, some have funny rhymes, my favorite aspect is the illustrations, and best of all they are just fun!