"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."
-Dr. Seuss
Dr. Seuss is a widely known author throughout the world as an American writer and illustrator of children's books. His given name is Theodor Seuss Geisel. Seuss is the maiden name of his mother and is pronounced: "Soice", as in voice and choice. Despite having the honorific "dr." he was not a real doctor. This honorific was used to appease his father who expected him to study medicine. He was born on March 2nd,1904 in Springfield Massachusetts, US, and died September 24th,1991 in La Jolla, California at the age of 87.
Dr Seuss: An Ad Illustrator
Before his writing career, Seuss worked as an ad illustrator for Ford, GE, and NCB from 1927 to the 1940s. The graphics of the ads greatly resembled the artwork of his books. "And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street" was his first book, which was rejected a total of twenty-seven times by many publishers before it was published on December 21st, 1937 by the Vanguard Press.
"Green Eggs and Ham": The Most Famous Dr. Seuss Book
Many of his works spread around the globe like wildfire, however, his most famous writing would have to be "Green Eggs and Ham". The story focuses on Sam-I-Am who wants the main character to try green eggs and eggs. The main character refuses every suggestion of place and condition Sam-I-Am offers. Eventually the main character tries them and to his surprise he liked them and he thanks Sam-I-Am. The message that comes out of the story is not to make up your mind about something without giving it a try. The story also teaches patience and reasoning.
His Purpose for Writing
Dr. Seuss' started writing because he wanted to help children. He realized that children did not like reading because the books were boring to them and hard to understand so he decide to make books with interesting stories, easy to read, two words, simple sentences and rhymes. His works were known for their nonsense words, fun rhymes and strange characters which colored the children's imaginary world.
Other Books By Seuss
Other honorary mentions of his works are: "The Cat in the Hat", "The Lorax", "Fox in Socks", "Oh the Places You'll Go", "There's a Wocket in My Pocket", " If I Ran the Zoo", "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!", "Hop On Pop" and "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" just to name a few.
Books Banned in 2021
He wrote over sixty books beloved by children everywhere, however six of his books were pulled of the self for 'racism' and where banned from further publication and schools. These are: "And To Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street", "If I Ran the Zoo", "McElligot's Pool", "The Cat's Quizzer", "Scrambled Eggs Super!" and "On Beyond Zebra".
"And To Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street" was banned because of an Asian person wearing a conical hat while eating from a bowl with chopsticks. "If I Ran the Zoo" was banned also because the book had the drawing of barefoot African men wearing grass skirts and Asian characters in conical hats, and additional Asian. "McElligot's Pool" met the same fate because of the use of Eskimos to describe a fish that swims from the North Pole to McElligot’s Pool.
Did these grand works of art deserved to be banned? What do you think?
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