...
Show More
People like to berate The Cat in the Hat for what it's not. It's not beautifully illustrated, like The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley or Beatrix Potter's The Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit. Nor is it lyrical like Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, Miss Bianca by Margery Sharp or Charlotte's Web by E.B. White.
But, along with Dr. Seuss' One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, it was one of the very first books I ever owned or read. My Cuban parents didn't read English -- not then -- and Dr. Seuss' books were simple enough that I could teach myself. Theodore Geisel's editor limited him to a list of 225 words, making the book quite a challenge to write, I'm sure. Geisel used 223 words from the list and 13 additional ones, and 221 of the words used are monosyllabic. And, as with E. Nesbit's The Railway Children, Ethel Turner's Seven Little Australians and C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, the siblings in the book are real children, tempted into going along with what used to be call "bad company," and millions of readers have delighted in the eponymous cat who performs all of the antics they wish they could get away with and somehow -- despite the odds -- makes everything turn out all right. What a vicarious thrill!
But, along with Dr. Seuss' One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, it was one of the very first books I ever owned or read. My Cuban parents didn't read English -- not then -- and Dr. Seuss' books were simple enough that I could teach myself. Theodore Geisel's editor limited him to a list of 225 words, making the book quite a challenge to write, I'm sure. Geisel used 223 words from the list and 13 additional ones, and 221 of the words used are monosyllabic. And, as with E. Nesbit's The Railway Children, Ethel Turner's Seven Little Australians and C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, the siblings in the book are real children, tempted into going along with what used to be call "bad company," and millions of readers have delighted in the eponymous cat who performs all of the antics they wish they could get away with and somehow -- despite the odds -- makes everything turn out all right. What a vicarious thrill!
