Fans of all ages are flocking to the theaters, eager to see the writings of Dr. Seuss come alive in the hit movie, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and in the musical, Seussical, now playing on Broadway. How did Dr. Seuss change children's literature forever?

Dr. Seuss, also known as Theodor Seuss Geisel, published his first children's book in 1937. He was ahead of his time. Up until the 1950s, the primers used in school to teach children to read were of the Dick and Jane variety. The books were so dull that novelist John Hersey used the pages of Life magazine to complain about the situation.

Like Hersey, people were beginning to suspect that stale prose was one of the reasons that kids struggled with reading. One of the best-selling books of the day was a critique of children's literacy called Why Johnny Can't Read.

Prompted by the public outcry, a VIP at the Houghton Mifflin book publishing company challenged Dr. Seuss to write a reading primer that would captivate young audiences with a vocabulary of just 225 words.

Dr. Seuss rose to the challenge, and the result was The Cat in the Hat, published in 1957. The book was so successful at capturing youthful imaginations that it became the first in a popular series.

By the time Seuss died in 1991, he had written and illustrated 44 books. His classics, such as Green Eggs and Ham and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, continue to endure.

Dr. Seuss was a genius at having fun with words. He created whole different worlds and invented made-up words to go along with them. His nonsense words were designed to let children enjoy playful, rhyming sounds, the theory being that children would become more interested in reading.

Dr. Seuss was criticized at first because some educators feared that children would become confused by his outlandish language. But by the time Dr. Seuss won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for his contributions to children's literature, such criticism had long since vanished. He remains the world's best-selling author of children's books.

Read the following passage taken from Dr. Seuss' book, The Lorax:

"I am the Lorax," he coughed and he whiffed. He sneezed and he snuffled. He snarggled. He sniffed. "Once-ler!" he cried with a cruffulous croak. "Once-ler! You're making such smogulous smoke!"

• Look at the boldface words. While you won't find them in the dictionary, it is possible to interpret their meanings. See if you can come up with synonyms for them. A synonym is another word that has nearly the same meaning.
  
  
• Try your own hand at "make-believe" words. Substitute your own creations for the boldface words.

Dr. Seuss' books often had a moral. The Lorax, for example, is a parable that warns us about what would happen to the world if we cut down all the trees. A parable is a short, fictitious story that illustrates a moral or principle.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas is an anti-materialism tale that demonstrates what the real spirit of the holiday is about. Some critics believe that the book was also Dr. Seuss' way of commenting on the way factory owners treated the immigrants who worked in the auto factories where he grew up.

• Seuss' hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts, is in the process of erecting five statues in honor of Dr. Seuss. Check out what three of the statues will look like.

Learn More

• The movie, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, contains 600 visual-effects shots. Learn more about visual effects by reading the Riverdeep Current archive story, "Making the Most of Visual Effects."

More Links

• Read How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
  
  
• Read The Lorax.
  
  
• Take this quiz to see if you are a Seuss expert.
  
  
• Learn more about the National Education Association's Read Across America program on Dr. Seuss' birthday, March 2, 2001.
  
  
• Some of Dr. Seuss' most famous characters come to life in Seussical the Musical.

Related Resources

• Get The Cat in the Hat.
  
  
• Get Green Eggs and Ham.