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Every Sunday I take my kids to the library to get as many books as they want (YES for FREE BOOKS!!). At first, they were much more interested in getting DVDs, picking out 5-6 movies for each book they selected.
I did not like that.
Over time, however, they began to pick up more books, probably because they knew more words and were excited to see them on the page.
My daughter has blossomed as a reader this year. I started her at 3.5 with her sight words and she knew a good number of them. But after kindergarten and a couple weeks into first grade, she’s reading more complex sentences and I am loving every minute.
She always picks out at least one Dr. Seuss book. Always. Never fails. She loves them.
And I love them. Always have. Hop on Pop was one of my favorite books as a child and The Cat in the Hat was the first book I read from cover to cover by myself. I still remember how proud I was to have done that, and it was well over 20 years ago!
So this is a thank you to Dr. Seuss for creating books with fabulous, wacky stories, for his imagination and spunk. I had a fantastic time learning about the man at Seussville.com (why am I just now discovering that site?) and laughed a couple times at some of the events in his life. He wanted children to love reading and to learn how to think for themselves.
As a testament to his influence, we came home yesterday with new books. My daughter was so engrossed with her One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish that I had to practically pull her out of the car and hold her hand on the way inside because she wouldn’t stop reading long enough to watch where she was going.
That’s influence.
I *love* Dr. Seuss. I have ever since I was in kindergarten—which was (gasp!) 50 years ago. I loved them for their catchy rhymes, their silly pictures, their sense of fun. I loved them when I read them to my kids, who also loved them. A lot. So much that even 20 years after my youngest learned to read, I still remember most of Dr. Seuss’s ABC without even looking at the book. (B, b, B, b. What begins with B? Barber, baby, bubbles, and a bumblebee. Go ahead. Ask me a letter.) I still quote Hop on Pop. (Why are they mad and sad and glad? I do not know. Go ask your dad.) I’m thrilled that my children and children-in-law have chosen Dr. Seuss for their own kids, and I love reading those books to my grandchildren!
Yeah, yeah, I sound like the estate of Dr. Seuss paid me to say this. Too bad that the books don’t need the publicity!