Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss

Have you ever noticed how you can divide the world into people who loved Cat in the Hat as children and people who detested it?

This from Garrison Keillor's  Writers Almanac:
Dr. Seuss spent nine months composing The Cat in the Hat. It uses just 220 different words and is 1,702 words long. He was a meticulous reviser, and he once said: "Writing for children is murder. A chapter has to be boiled down to a paragraph. Every word has to count."
And here is a link to The Cat in the Hat translated into American Sign Language.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Wow! Thanks for sharing the link to the book in sign language. That was really neat to see.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Dr. Seuss!
Meg Rosoff said…
I always think The Cat In The Hat is the most fabulously subversive picture book ever written -- kids left home alone, Cat comes in and rips the place apart, Things 1 & 2 (I mean, who are THEY?)
Thanks for reminding us how hard it is to write a great one....

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