Bits and bobs

American writer, cartoonist and illustrator Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known to the world as Dr. Seuss, was born in Springfield, Massachusetts.


This year National Read Across America Day is celebrated on Ted's birthday (he was born on March 2, 1904). This event was established 13 years ago by NEA (National Education Association) in USA and focuses on motivating children and teenagers to read. Thousand of schools, libraries and community centers participate all across the country.





Dr. Seuss began his career in advertising. His advertising cartoons, featuring recurrent plea"Quick, Henry, the Flit!"became a common catchphrase and appeared in leading American magazines.




His first children's book "And to Think That I saw It on Malberry Street" hit the market in 1937, and the world of children's literature was changed forever!
Brilliant, playful and always respectful of children, Dr. Seuss published over 60 children's books characterized by imaginative characters, including such all-time favourites as "The Cat in the Hat", "Green Eggs and Ham", "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish", "Fox in Socks", "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"...
"A person's a person, no matter how small!" he would say. "Children want the same things we want. To laugh, to be challenged, to be entertained, and delighted".




In 1957, "The Cat in the Hat" started a series of books for beginning readers. He picked 220 words important for them to learn and kids and parents loved the story. It opens on two children who are stuck inside their house due to rain while their mother is out. They are looking for "something to do" when they suddenly get a visit from a six-foot-tall cat who wears a tall striped hat. This talking cat offers to entertain them by performing varios tricks, with the help from his funny-looking assistants, Thing One and Thing Two, despite the objections from the kid's pet fish.
Eventually, after the Cat and the Things end up making a mess of the house, the kids take control of the situation, and the Cat makes up for it by cleaning the place in his way out right before the mother returns.



He was also a life-long cartoonist in highschool in Springfield, Massachusetts; in college at Dartmonth; as an adman in New York City before World War II and in his many children's books. As he is famous for his children's books and his political cartoons remained largely unknown,we do


not think of Dr. Seuss as a political cartoonist. But the truth is that from 1941 to 1943 he was the chief editorial cartoonist for the New York newspaper "PM". He drew over 400 editorial cartoons on different subjects, people and places.

Besides the books, his works have provided the source for eleven children's television specials, A Broadway musical and a feature-length motion picture.
His honours include two Academy awards, two Emmy awards, a Peabody award and the Pulitzer Prize.




Well, if you ever happen to go to Springfield, Massachusetts, the city where Theodor Seuss Geisel was born don't miss the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden, Sculptor Lark Grey Dimond-Cates, created the endearing bronze sculptures of Dr. Seuss and his most beloved characters for the Springfield Library & Museums Association, located in the heart of this city.