March 2 is Dr. Seuss’s birthday. Since his writings have inspired many of us from childhood and continue to provide fun reading for children today, we thought we would celebrate the doctor with a post in his honor. Now go and reread one of your old favorites, or indulge in some green eggs and ham!
No, Happy Birthday to you, Dr. Seuss!
Celebrating Dr. Seuss – Oh, The Places He’s Been
The very first book I learned to read was Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? That is a lie. The very first book I memorized and recited as if reading was Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? My babysitter sat astonished, mouth agape when, at three years old, I read her my beloved book while sitting in her lap in a rocking chair. “The child’s a genius!” she exclaimed, only to be let down gently when my mother explained that I’d been memorizing that book my entire three-year life. Regardless, I’ll always be indebted to the Doctor for helping me score those few precious moments of someone thinking me a prodigy.
Fifteen years later, one week before graduating high school, he showed up again. During one of our senior banquets, as we all prepared to graduate and start college, an English teacher stood on stage and read us Oh, the Places You’ll Go. We’d been listless during the other speeches, but once we heard the first words, and imagined the brains in our heads and shoes in our feet, we sat captivated, just as that babysitter had done over a decade prior.
Upon graduating college I began working as a reading and writing tutor for elementary school children. Hour after hour I practiced the dreaded “th” sound with my kids. “Tongue under the teeth! Like this – th,” I said, blowing air through my front teeth. Most of them finally caught on, and we were able to properly read about Thing 1 and Thing 2.
And after I got married and moved to Houston, lo and behold if I didn’t I bump into Mr. Seuss again while I sat on a blanket with my new husband and watched an outdoor theatre performance of Horton Hears a Who.
All this to say, Happy Birthweek, Dr. Suess! Love, a lifelong reader.
