Dr. Seuss - Read Across America

Dr. Seuss.  Who was he?

Theodor Seuss Geisel became famous under the name of Dr. Seuss.    

He was not a medical doctor, but an illustrator, a political cartoonist, and created art for Madison Avenue advertising before he became a children’s author.

His first children’s book, And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, an imaginative story about what a child sees on his way home from school, was published in 1937. 

His publisher, Houghton Mifflin, encouraged Geisel to create a beginning reader book out of a list of only 250 common words.  Geisel created The Cat in the Hat .  It was the first of many in the Beginning Reader series by Houghton Mifflin.  Geisel felt strongly that each child should have an affordable hard cover book in their house, and until his death none of his books were available in paperback.  

Geisel was a perfectionist, and was not someone who catered to adults.  He felt  the important person to impress was the child reading the book.

Ted Geisel, Doctor Seuss, was born on March 2^nd, 1904, and  the National Education Association has chosen that day for it’s celebration of children’s reading, Read Across America.

Read to your child this week!  Celebrate the life and works of Dr. Seuss.