Reading for the Fun of It

A student lent me her fun hat!

Today I celebrated Read Across America Day along with third and fourth graders at Olde Providence Elementary School. In honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday, I had the pleasure of reading The Bippilo Seed and Other Lost Stories (Random House, 2011).

The students enthusiastically appreciated Dr. Seuss's imagination, rhymes, and the lessons he cleverly taught. 

I know next week students will be fighting over who will check this book out of the library first.

I read the book's introduction between classes. The book was compiled by Dr. Charles Cohen (a dentist--believe it or not!) who loved Dr. Seuss books as a child. He found seven stories that had been published in magazines between 1950-1951, but had since been "forgotten." Cohen provided a brief background into these stories as well as some insights into Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel). One time a three-year-old boy recited one of Geisel's stories. After his initial astonishment, Geisel realized that the child had memorized the words because he loved how they sounded. 


With that insight under his belt, Geisel went on to write prolifically with a crusader's passion to make reading fun. As reported in an article on today's TIME website:


"Geisel considered his greatest achievement to be killing off the Dick and Jane books, which he said weren’t challenging enough for children, and were boring. Dr. Seuss’ books became the new standard in children’s publishing—expanding the imagination through brilliant illustration, social issues, and clever rhymes and vocabulary."


I think these students would agree that reading is fun!

While I read today, I remembered how much my father enjoyed reading silly poems like these to his children. My father inspired my own love for reading and writing. And in that spirit, here is my mini-tribute to Theodore Geisel:

I thank Dr. Seuss

and the Cat in the Hat

for happy kids reading

and that is a fact!!

How about you? What was your favorite Dr. Seuss book to hear as a child, or to read to your own children?