Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories

Three modern fables in humorous pictures and verse.

Three modern fables in humorous pictures and verse.  

Children's Literature

Every few years Random House reissues the various Dr. Seuss tales including this one, which dates back to the 1950s, before his Cat in the Hat easy-reads, and why shouldn't they?! It is likely that many share my firm belief that one is never too young or too old for Dr. Seuss. Leaders of state might do well to curl up with a child or grandchild and Yertle the Turtle, for example. Reading how the most overweening arrogance can be upset by a burp should help them think about building their power on the backs of their subjects. The lessons of Gertrude McFuzz and the Big Brag are equally salutary and equally easy to go back to again and again, thanks to inimitable rollicking rhymes and Seussy illustrations. The only way in which this "Party Edition" seems to differ from any other is that the cover is a little glitzier. Reviewer: Mary Hynes-Berry

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.