Los 500 sombreros de Bartolomé Cubbins

Each time Bartholomew Cubbins attempts to obey the King's order to take off his hat, he finds there is another one on his head.

Each time young Bartholomew Cubbins takes off his hat, another appears on his head. This infuriates the King, who has commanded the boy to uncover his head. Even the King's wise men and magicians cannot keep the hat from reappearing. The 500th hat, however, is so beautiful that the King decides he must have it. He pays Bartholomew 500 gold pieces, and Bartholomew goes home a richer, though hatless, young man.

It s difficult to imagine the children s book landscape without Dr. Seuss, who is, almost half a century after The Cat in the Hat, the best-recognized children s book writer in the country. But until Dr. Seuss -- a.k.a. Theodor Seuss Geisel -- reinvented the genre with his colorful and exuberant Sneetches, Grinches, Zaxes, and Zooks, children s books were often little more than literal-minded lessons and cautionary tales intended to transform young readers into productive citizens.