“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…”
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
A fellow blogger reminded me of the sheer genius of Dr. Seuss and his books — joyfully rhythmic and seemingly silly, yet all the while spinning wonderful life lessons about the challenges of life and what we can achieve if we set our minds to it.
My boys’ favorite Seuss book was “If I ran the circus” which was originally my husband’s book when he was a child. I so vividly remember reading it to them and how we would all recite certain parts in unison upon each reading. Those days went by so very quickly and I had no idea just how quickly the months and years would pass.
Lucky for me, they have turned out to be quite wonderful young men. And I must give Dr. Seuss partial credit. 🙂
Theodor Seuss Geisel surrounded by his literary works. He holds one of his most popular, The Cat in the Hat.
About Dr. Seuss
He sold over two million books including some of his most popular: “The Cat In The Hat,” “The Sneetches,” “Green Eggs & Ham,” “Oh, The Places You’ll Go,” and “How The Grinch Stole Christmas.”
Yet, even Dr. Seuss was rejected.
His first book, “And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street” was rejected 27 times before he finally got a yes.
One of his most famous rejection letter excerpts read, “This is too different from other juveniles on the market to warrant its selling.” Wikipedia
Good for Seuss for not giving up. And good for us, indeed.
Related p0st: http://samanthamcgarry.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/a-letter-to-dr-seuss/
life on wry 
Some of his books were so deep! Don’t forget Yertle the Turtle, The Big Brag, and Gertrude McFuzz (usually published in one book). They should be required reading for adults. Yertle, at the bottom of the enormous stack of turtles supporting one at the top who is “seeing great sights” and believes he is the ruler of all he can see, spits out that the turtles at the bottom have rights. That’s political commentary at its best!
A master of words, indeed.
There will never be another like him.. I still have loads of my Dr Seuss books and some of my kids books..What a marvel he was 🙂
Absolutely!
My kids loved Dr Seuss (and so did I). Oh how quickly the time flies….
It’s always good to hear famous writers rejections (even though it would have been horrible for them at the time) because it gives others a lot of hope that maybe one day, they’ll be the one 😀
That’s why I highlighted that part about the rejection…. I agree, it makes things seem more possible.
When I was a kid, I learned to read by reading Dr. Seuss books. The Dick and Jane books I had to slog through in school were sheer drudgery when compared to the infinitely more entertaining Cat in the Hat. Of course, the school was Catholic a.k.a. Atheist training for me, since entertaining was not part of the curriculum.
Hey, thanks for the follow.
You bet. Thanks to you as well!
I loved Dr. Seuss as a child. My daughter? Not so much. She would indulge me by letting me read “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” and once in a while “Green Eggs and Ham”, but she, much to my dismay, never cottoned to “The Cat in the Hat”.
I think mine thought it was cool that we had Dad’s old book, crumpled pages and all. Or we told them it was cool anyway. 🙂
LOL!
I was always fascinated by the Grinch.
Undoubtedly the most fascinating of all of the characters.