Dr. Seuss

Children's Literature - Joyce Rice

Author Theodore Seuss Geisel is better known to his readers as Dr. Seuss. He was an American author, born in Massachusetts in 1904, just at the beginning of the twentieth century. As a student, Ted, as his friends and family called him, could often be seen drawing cartoons instead of listening to his lessons. As often happens, this skill helped him to land a job with magazines when he was an adult. His employer did not allow him to write books for adults but he could use his working time to write for children, so that is where he started. One of his first efforts, an ABC book, remained unpublished but he went on to write many books for children that would be very popular. Dr. Seuss wrote books that rhymed and that were funny but that also pointed out to readers how to do the right thing. Characters such as the Cat in the Hat, Horton and the Grinch are well known to Seuss readers. Many of Seuss' stories were produced as movies and are still viewed today by children of all ages. Unlike other authors, Dr. Seuss drew his own illustrations using pen and ink and sometime color. His books continue to be loved by new generations of early readers. This brief biography with resource pages and a bold-type glossary deserves a place in elementary biography collections. This series, called "Author Biographies" includes titles about A. A. Milne, Beatrice Potter, Roald Dahl, and Maurice Sendak as well as Dr. Seuss. It is a part of the "Read and Learn" collection of nonfiction books by this publisher for young readers. Reviewer: Joyce Rice