My best friend got me this as a birthday present. It’s one of the cutest gifts ever. A lot of pages rhyme like this one I really like: “ If we didn’t have birthdays, you wouldn’t be you. If you’ve never been born, well then what would you do? If you’ve never been born, then what would you be? You might be a fish! Or a toad in a tree! You might be a doorknob! Or three baked potatoes! You might be a bag full of hard green tomatoes. Or worse than that ... Why, you might be a WASN’T! A Wasn’t have no fun at all. No, he doesn’t. A Wasn’t just isn’t. He just isn’t present. But you ... You ARE YOU! And, now isn’t that pleasant! “
If ur reading this then thank you, Nemo. You’re the best!

“Today is your birthday! Today you are you!” —Great Birthday Bird

Delightful rhymes—so full of truth and fun to read aloud—with bright, silly pictures of wonderful birthday adventures crafted in the inimitable Seussian style.

“Today you are you! That is truer than true!
There is no one alive who is you-er than you!”

A fun little birthday book

What a wonderful celebration of YOU! I love that this book helps children understand how special they are and that one day each year people celebrate not only that they are here, but who they are. Excellent children's book, though I think to keep it special, just read it once a year on their birthday!

I'm reading through all of Dr. Seuss's books chronologically, and this is his nineteenth one. It's a "regular" picture book, published in 1959, in the midst of several books for Random House's Beginner Books imprint, which Seuss was also helping to run. Happy Birthday to You! is sandwiched between The Cat in the Hat Comes Back and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, so at minimum it shows Seuss staying true to his original style for older children while working on these other books with limited vocabulary for early readers.

I tend to focus on the text in these reviews, but the first thing that strikes me about this book is the glorious illustrations. That's because, believe it or not, coming in 1959—twenty-two years into his book-writing career—this is only his second one with full color, which was expensive and time consuming (though probably a lot of fun). Generally, in addition to black and white Seuss limited his palette to monochromatic fields of solid colors, no gradations or mixing. He would when necessary use a light tint and a darker tint, but generally just one or two colors—red, yellow, blue, or green—would serve through the entire book. I've seen sources that say this was ink and others that say he used acrylic oil paint; I don't know, and if anyone does please comment and let me know! But with that he created entire worlds of color in our minds: we think of the Grinch as green, for instance, even though red is the only color in that book.

In Happy Birthday to You he's switched to watercolor, with black lines and a few solid backgrounds still done in ink (or acrylic). He'd done this twice before, first in his adult book The Seven Lady Godivas in 1940. But even there he limited his spectrum to a very close family of pinks and reds, sometimes with a little ochre shade in the ladies' hair, which is why I don't consider it using the full range of the rainbow. He did, however, go full-color watercolors in McElligot's Pool in 1947. So that's his first use of the full range of colors, but, I believe because of cost, only half the illustrations were in color; every other spread (two facing pages) is in black and white.

That makes Happy Birthday to You a wonderful visual achievement for him. His clout and celebrity even probably got Random House to agree to doing the entire book in full-color spreads—although they immediately went back to the limited palette and stayed there. But here we see the full rainbow, with blues, reds, oranges, pinks, greens, browns, yellows, grays—everything! The story is about a young boy—with Seuss it's always a boy—celebrating his birthday in a far-off land, and as the celebration gets wilder and wilder this full range of color allows Seuss to create increasingly extravagant flowers, decorations, fireworks, and creatures. It's really wonderful to look at, a real feast for the eyes.

As far as the story itself, this book shares some DNA with his "list books," which merely present a series of increasingly zany fish, birds, circus acts, or other creatures; here, of course, it's all of the strange animals and people that are coming to celebrate. There's not too much narrative variety in this structure, which is why some reviews here describe this book as boring, but for my money it's fun to watch how Seuss keeps making the celebration bigger and bigger, and it's a wonderful book for birthdays themselves, or anytime you want to celebrate a child's existence. Though there is a little boy celebrating his birthday here, he's a stand-in for the reader: the book is in the second person as Seuss describes how he would like to celebrate your birthday. It's a clever way to allow direct address to the reader, who definitely feels spoken to even though, of course, the text is a monologue directed at a character in the book.

In that way, the book is entirely an exercise in validation: "it's so wonderful that you're you, it's so great for us that you're here, the world is a better place because you're in it." It's the ethos that would define Mr. Rogers' work just a few years later. And it's the moral of Horton Hears a Who from 1954, that "a person's a person, no matter how small," but I like that here it's directed straight towards the young reader themselves.

Happy Birthday to You is one of Seuss's lighter works—not many people will consider it their favorite—but it's a fun conglomeration of wish fulfillment and partying, along with a consistent validation of the reader's inner worth. In that way it has one of the strongest and most important morals anywhere in his work.

My complete series of reviews of all sixty-three Dr. Seuss books in order—a list I believe only exists here—plus three of his many books published posthumously, is here. And here specifically are my reviews of his previous book, n  The Cat in the Hat Comes Backn, and his next one, n  One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fishn.

Happy birthday to you! Is about how Dr. Seuss address young readers along them to themselves and take joy on the simple things in life. How I can incorporate this into the classroom is by teaching the kids how to appreciate it the little things in life.

A great birthday gift from my husband Andrew and a fun start to my special day!

Thanks to the two Hooded Klopfers named Alice, the Zummers who are zumming and Dr. Derring’s Singing Herrings, this will be a great day! All for me! ❤️

I had not read this one previously, but will not work it in to the lives of my nieces.

'Happy Birthday to You' lets you know how your birthday would be celebrated in the land of Katroo. Dr. Seuss's imaginative drawings and rhymes show us a magical place in which your birthday is celebrated to the max. But Dr. Seuss tops himself when writing some surprisingly existential poetry on pages 16 and 50, with lines as "If you'd never been born, well then what would you be?" and "There is no-one alive who is you-er than you". Unlike most Dr. Seuss books the illustrations are completely painted, which add to the book's unique atmosphere.

I loved this book. I actually called my friend on their birthday and read this book to them. I really liked that it teaches you to appreciate yourself and be grateful to be alive. In the end, it says, "and I wish I could do all these great things for you!" I thought it was very in touch with the audience to show gratitude and appreciation for whatever you get.

What a great idea for a child's birthday gift! Some non-words created here make phonetic reading quite important. Their cute little giggles make their efforts at pronunciation all worthwhile!
Exceptional artwork makes it a no-brainer for kids and adults alike.

Seuss is so close to my heart, definitely needed this right now!
"There is no one alive who is you-er than you! Shout loud, 'I am lucky to be what I am!' Thank goodness I'm not just a clam or a ham..."
Side note: before I added my review the rating was 4.13* which is my birthday. Just thought that was wild.