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| 0394900022
| 9780394900025
| 0394900022
| 3.91
| 31,540
| Sep 12, 1958
| 1986
|
really liked it
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That troublemaking feline who first appeared in 1957, in Dr. Seuss' very first early reader,
The Cat in the Hat
, returns in this second, alphabeti
That troublemaking feline who first appeared in 1957, in Dr. Seuss' very first early reader,
The Cat in the Hat
, returns in this second, alphabetic adventure. As the narrator and his sister Sally shovel snow, the Cat in the Hat appears, dashing off into the house despite being told he is not welcome. Here he makes the predictable mess, and then unveils his helpers: little cats in hats, nested within his own hat like Matryoshka dolls, and named (one each) for the letters of the alphabet. This feline crew swing into action to clean up the big pink spot that persists, as a result of the original Cat in the Hat's shenanigans, with the deciding factor in their success being the invisible VOOM living under Cat Z's hat... Originally published in 1958, the year after its predecessor, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back was Dr. Seuss's sixteenth children's book, and the second of what would grow to become a substantial collection of early readers. Although it can be read as a picture-book, it belongs to Random House's I Can Read It All By Myself Beginner Books collection, which encompasses all of the Dr. Seuss and Dr. Seuss-labeled early readers, as well as other titles. Like the earlier title, it is a book I recall reading and enjoying as a child, although perhaps not as often or as much as the first. I picked it up for this reread as part of my recently begun Dr. Seuss retrospective, in which I will be reading and reviewing all of of his classic children's books, in chronological publication order. This is a project I undertook as an act of personal protest against the suppression of six of the author/artist's titles - And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , McElligot's Pool , If I Ran the Zoo , Scrambled Eggs Super! , On Beyond Zebra! and The Cat's Quizzer - by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, due to the outdated and potentially offensive elements that they contain. See my review of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , to be found HERE, for a fuller exploration of my thoughts on that matter. As I mentioned in my recent review of The Cat in the Hat , although these books are not currently being suppressed through this recent decision on the part of the copyright holder, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, to cease publication, it may only be a matter of time until they have been added to that sad list. To quote myself: "Sadly, the censorious impulse - including, and perhaps especially, the self-censorious impulse, of which this recent decision is an example - only gains strength as it is fed, and this particular book has already run afoul of those same critics whose work seems to have informed Dr. Seuss Enterprises' recent action against the artistic and literary legacy that they are meant to be representing. Apparently the argument has been put forward, in such academic titles as Philip Nel's Was the Cat in the Hat Black?: The Hidden Racism of Children's Literature, and the Need for Diverse Books , that the titular Cat in this story is a descendant of the minstrel shows and blackface of earlier generations, and that his actions are a coded reflection of white fears about the disruptive nature of black power. I cannot comment upon Nel's argument, having not yet read the book - something I hope to do in the future - but some of the reviews of it that I have seen, reviews that mention all of the "decoding" done by the critic, in order to arrive at his conclusion, do make me wonder whether the text actually supports that conclusion, or whether the entire argument rests upon the imposition of the critic's own preexisting assumptions upon the text. I hope, at some point, to have an answer to that question, as well as a better understanding of the role of critics like Nel in this recent decision from Dr. Seuss Enterprises. Whatever the final argument put forward in his book, it is not my intention to assert that he can be held directly accountable for this act of censoriousness, simply by virtue of his having made a critique of Dr. Seuss' work. There is a difference, after all, between critique - even harsh critique - and calling for censorship. Of course, if Nel's book does indeed make an argument for suppressing books such as The Cat in the Hat and The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, or if Nel was one of the panel of "experts" Dr. Seuss Enterprises is said to have consulted, then that is a different matter, and some of the blame for this recent episode of cultural vandalism can indeed be laid at his feet." Again, as with the first book, in light of this criticism I have given particular attention to the depiction of the Cat during this reread, in order to see whether I could detect any problematic racialized elements to his character. There is certainly a disquieting element to these stories - Nel is not wrong in labeling the cat disruptive! - that I recall finding rather striking, even as a young girl. Of course, my sense then was more that the Cat was being "naughty," and that the story represented the mischief children get up to, absent parental authority. This second story has an additional disturbing element, one I see referenced in quite a few online reviews, in that the alphabetical cat crew use play pop-guns in defeating the pink spot. This is interesting, because I don't recall the pop-guns from my girlhood reading of the book, making me think now that I just accepted them as a matter of course, understanding that they were toys, rather than the real thing. Truthfully, even reading as an adult, I find the pop-guns (referred to in some online reviews simply as "guns," with no reference to them being toys) less disturbing than the pink slime, which initially came off the Cat in the Hat himself, after taking a bath. In any case, I don't see any of these story elements, however disturbing - the Cat in the Hat's blithe disregard for the fact that he isn't welcome, the nasty pink slime, the alphabetical cat crew - as being in any way "coded" black. I will have to read further, in Nel's work, to get a sense of why he thinks otherwise. I'll conclude by observing, as I did in my review of the first book, that "whatever interpretation the reader lands upon, when it comes to the meaning of the story and its creator's intentions, the experience of generations of children confirm that this is an immensely entertaining book. I can only hope that it will not be disappeared by our current climate of censoriousness, and that coming generations will also be able to enjoy its odd, disquieting charm." ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 29, 2021
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May 29, 2021
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May 29, 2021
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Hardcover
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| 0394800877
| 9780394800875
| 0394800877
| 4.15
| 35,386
| Apr 12, 1958
| Apr 12, 1958
|
really liked it
|
Dr. Seuss presents three short stories, each highlighting a particular moral lesson, in this classic picture-book. In the eponymous Yertle the Turtle,
Dr. Seuss presents three short stories, each highlighting a particular moral lesson, in this classic picture-book. In the eponymous Yertle the Turtle, that chelonian ruler attempts to make himself greater and greater by forcing his fellow turtles to pile themselves up in a great column, so that he can sit at the very top and survey his "kingdom." Like all tyrants, he is brought low again by the instability of his rule. In Gertrude McFuzz a young bird with only one feather envies a peer - the pretty Lolla-Lee-Lou - who has two, eventually pestering her doctor uncle into telling her how to increase her tail feathers. Unfortunately, Gertrude goes a little bit too far in her quest for beauty, and must pay the price in a painful way. Finally, in The Big Brag, a rabbit and bear get into a competition to see who is the better of the two, one demonstrating great hearing, another great smell, before a humble worm puts them both in their place, by pointing out how foolish they have been... Originally published in 1958, Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories was Dr. Seuss's fifteenth children's book, and is a title I recall very fondly, from my own childhood. I have vivid memories of reading and rereading this book, particularly the first two stories. I picked it up for this current reread as part of my recently begun Dr. Seuss retrospective, in which I will be reading and reviewing all forty-four of the author/artist's classic children's books, in chronological publication order. This is a project I have undertaken as an act of personal protest against the suppression of six of the author/artist's titles - And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , McElligot's Pool , If I Ran the Zoo , Scrambled Eggs Super! , On Beyond Zebra! and The Cat's Quizzer - by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, due to the outdated and potentially offensive elements that they contain. See my review of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , to be found HERE, for a fuller exploration of my thoughts on that matter. Leaving that aside, Yertle the Turtle has always been one of my favorite Seuss books, and might have been one of my rare five-star titles as well, if I loved the third story here as much as I love the first two. The tale of Yertle and his delusions of grandeur has always struck me (and many other readers as well) as a meditation on the nature of political power, one which emphasizes that rulers can only rule with the consent of the governed, and that the high position of our elites, whether economic or political, often rests on the hard work of ordinary people. Yertle's eventual fall, both literally and figuratively, comes about because he forgets this essential truth, and because he is indifferent to the welfare of those ordinary people (or, in his case, turtles). One wishes that this lesson could be drummed into our current leadership, whatever their political stripe! The tale of Gertrude and her plume envy highlights, not just the folly of wishing to be like others, but the idea that often, simplicity is best. After all, what could be more beautiful than flying? And yet, because our avian heroine wishes for an ornate tail, one graced by countless colorful feathers, she finds herself unable to take to the skies. A useful reminder that superficial appearance fades into insignificance, compared to the desirability of health, and the full functioning of one's body. Finally, the story of the contest between the rabbit and bear points out the absurdity of imagining that our differences make us better (or worse) than one another. While one individual may be superior in one skill or ability, another may be better at some other. In the end, arguing about who is the "best," in terms of the overall value of the individual, is a waste of time. All in all, a wonderful book, one which presents a number of valuable lessons for the child reader, packaged in such a way as to be entertaining, rather than preachy. While it's true that The Big Brag has never quite struck the same never with me, as the other two stories - I have few memories of it, from my girlhood, whereas I can recall reading and greatly enjoying the other two - overall Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories remains a personal favorite, and certainly deserves its status as a classic. The accompanying artwork has all of the humorous appeal one would expect from Seuss, and the stories and engaging and thought-provoking. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 21, 2021
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Apr 21, 2021
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Apr 21, 2021
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Hardcover
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| 0394900014
| 9780394900018
| 0394900014
| 4.19
| 552,735
| Mar 12, 1957
| 1985
|
really liked it
|
The Cat in the Hat descends upon two children one rainy day in this classic early reader from Dr. Seuss, setting off a madcap, messy adventure in thei
The Cat in the Hat descends upon two children one rainy day in this classic early reader from Dr. Seuss, setting off a madcap, messy adventure in their home. Despite the narrator and his sister Sally not being particularly keen to host this feline guest, the Cat barges in, determined to share his games with them. The children's fish offers a continual string of objections, but the Cat carries on, even going so far as to set loose his twin terrors - Thing One and Thing Two - who destroy the house. When the Cat finally leaves, and the children's mother is spotted approaching, it looks like there will be trouble, but that irrepressible feline has one last trick up his sleeve... Originally published in 1957, The Cat in the Hat was Dr. Seuss's thirteenth children's book, and the first of his early readers. It works just as well as a read-aloud picture-book for younger children, but is intended for use with beginning readers, and is part of Random House's I Can Read It All By Myself Beginner Books collection, which includes all of the Dr. Seuss and Dr. Seuss-labeled early readers, amongst other titles. This is a book I recall reading many times as a girl, and its text and illustrations are immediately familiar, whenever I pick it up. This particular reread was prompted by my recently begun retrospective of Dr. Seuss's work, in which I will be reading and reviewing forty-four of his classic picture-books, in chronological publication order. This is a project I undertook as an act of personal protest against the suppression of six of the author/artist's titles - And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , McElligot's Pool , If I Ran the Zoo , Scrambled Eggs Super! , On Beyond Zebra! and The Cat's Quizzer - by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, due to the outdated and potentially offensive elements that they contain. See my review of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , to be found HERE, for a fuller exploration of my thoughts on that matter. Although The Cat in the Hat is not currently one of the books being suppressed through the copyright holder's recent decision to cease publication, readers should note that it may only be a matter of time until it has joined that unfortunate list. Sadly, the censorious impulse - including, and perhaps especially, the self-censorious impulse, of which this recent decision is an example - only gains strength as it is fed, and this particular book has already run afoul of those same critics whose work seems to have informed Dr. Seuss Enterprises' recent action against the artistic and literary legacy that they are meant to be representing. Apparently the argument has been put forward, in such academic titles as Philip Nel's Was the Cat in the Hat Black?: The Hidden Racism of Children's Literature, and the Need for Diverse Books , that the titular Cat in this story is a descendant of the minstrel shows and blackface of earlier generations, and that his actions are a coded reflection of white fears about the disruptive nature of black power. I cannot comment upon Nel's argument, having not yet read the book - something I hope to do in the future - but some of the reviews of it that I have seen, reviews that mention all of the "decoding" done by the critic, in order to arrive at his conclusion, do make me wonder whether the text actually supports that conclusion, or whether the entire argument rests upon the imposition of the critic's own preexisting assumptions upon the text. I hope, at some point, to have an answer to that question, as well as a better understanding of the role of critics like Nel in this recent decision from Dr. Seuss Enterprises. Whatever the final argument put forward in his book, it is not my intention to assert that he can be held directly accountable for this act of censoriousness, simply by virtue of his having made a critique of Dr. Seuss' work. There is a difference, after all, between critique - even harsh critique - and calling for censorship. Of course, if Nel's book does indeed make an argument for suppressing books such as The Cat in the Hat , or if Nel was one of the panel of "experts" Dr. Seuss Enterprises is said to have consulted, then that is a different matter, and some of the blame for this recent episode of cultural vandalism can indeed be laid at his feet. However that may be, in light of the criticisms leveled against this book, I gave careful attention to the depiction of the Cat during my current reread, curious to see if I would spy some of the problematic aspects, whatever they might be. I cannot deny that there is an element of unease in this story, and that the Cat's role is indeed disruptive. This is something that I recall being conscious of, even as a child reader. Of course, my sense then was more that the Cat was being "naughty," and that the story represented the mischief children get up to, absent parental authority. After all, the narrator and his sister are home alone, very bored, with nowhere to go. Rereading as an adult, having only recently read or reread all of Dr. Seuss' prior children's books, I came to a similar but somewhat expanded conclusion. Namely, that this is a story which offers an interesting and slightly different take on the power of imaginative play, depicted in previous books as wondrous and somehow transformative, even if only temporarily. Here however, we see the potentially destructive, perhaps even dangerous potential of imagination, and the chaos attendant upon following one's impulses. It clearly isn't an accident that the Cat in the Hat arrives when the children's mother is out. He appears to represent a force that is oppositional to familial authority, whose spokesperson in the the story would be the lecturing fish, always reminding the children of what their mother might say or think. It's interesting to note that the chaos and destruction ushered in by the Cat is temporary, and that all is set to rights again, at the close of the book. This suggests nothing so much as the kind of experiments in independence that young people conduct, inching out a bit from the family circle, and then retreating again to its safety. I couldn't say whether this was intentional upon Dr. Seuss's part, but the fact that the book is deliberately aimed at a slightly older child than some of the earlier picture-books, a slightly older child just getting going with their own independent reading, it's tempting to think that the creator is offering them a story about wholly independent play. Whatever interpretation the reader lands upon, when it comes to the meaning of the story and its creator's intentions, the experience of generations of children confirm that this is an immensely entertaining book. I can only hope that it will not be disappeared by our current climate of censoriousness, and that coming generations will also be able to enjoy its odd, disquieting charm. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 13, 2021
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Apr 13, 2021
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Apr 15, 2021
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Library Binding
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| 039480080X
| 9780394800806
| 039480080X
| 3.93
| 5,603
| Oct 12, 1956
| 1984
|
really liked it
|
Morris McGurk imagines the amazing circus he would create in the empty lot behind Sneelock's Store in this rhyming romp of a picture-book. From amazin
Morris McGurk imagines the amazing circus he would create in the empty lot behind Sneelock's Store in this rhyming romp of a picture-book. From amazing animal acts to daring stunts from Sneelock himself, our young narrator is convinced that The Circus McGurkus would be the best show on earth... First published in 1956, If I Ran the Circus was Dr. Seuss' twelfth picture-book, and it offers a variation on a theme that was fast becoming, at this point in his children's book career, a staple in his work. Namely, the idea of a young narrator who describes a fantastic catalogue of imaginary creatures. Prior titles falling into this general category include McElligot's Pool (1947), If I Ran the Zoo (1950) and Scrambled Eggs Super! (1953). I recall reading this one as a girl - the image of Sneelock standing inside his store immediately jumped out at me, as one I had encountered before - but I don't have strong memories of it, overall. I picked it up for this reread as part of my recently begun Dr. Seuss retrospective, in which I will be reading and reviewing forty-four of his classic picture-books, in chronological publication order. This is a project I undertook as an act of personal protest against the suppression of six of the author/artist's titles - And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , McElligot's Pool , If I Ran the Zoo , Scrambled Eggs Super! , On Beyond Zebra! and The Cat's Quizzer - by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, because they contain outdated and potentially offensive elements. See my review of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , to be found HERE, for a fuller exploration of my thoughts on that matter. In any case, I found If I Ran the Circus to be an entertaining title, full of all of the rhyming fun, fantastical creatures, and zany artwork that I have come to identify with Dr. Seuss' work. Like so many of his books, it offers a pean to the almost limitless powers of a child's imagination, as Morris McGurk makes up all kinds of unusual creatures, and envisions all kinds of unlikely acts for them to perform, in his amazing circus. Despite this cornucopia of creatively imagined beings, I think what I liked the most about the story was the figure of Sneelock, whose versatility (at least, in Morris' mind) makes him the star of the show. There's something rather amusing about the way that Morris thinks Sneelock would be only too happy to help him, no matter how outlandish the task, because the two are friendly. This running joke finds its culmination on the final page, as Sneelock, hitherto depicted with his eyes closed, while enjoying his pipe, is shown with eyes wide open, presumably in alarm. Although this isn't one that I would consider a favorite, when it comes to Dr. Seuss' work, it is quite entertaining, and is one I would recommend to picture-book readers looking for fun stories featuring imaginative youngsters. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 06, 2021
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Apr 06, 2021
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Apr 07, 2021
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0394800842
| 9780394800844
| 0394800842
| 4.02
| 3,664
| 1955
| 1983
|
really liked it
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Having mastered the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet, Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell is surprised to discover that there are other letters
Having mastered the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet, Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell is surprised to discover that there are other letters out there, beyond Z. Guided by the narrator, who steps in to share this amazing information, he learns about such letters as the Yuzz, used to spell Yuzz-a-ma-Tuzz; or the Thnad, used to spell Thnadners. Following along on a journey of enchanted discovery, Conrad Cornelius learns nineteen new letters, and meets nineteen unusual new creatures, realizing that there is so much to be found, beyond the letter Z... Originally published in 1955, On Beyond Zebra was Dr. Seuss' eleventh picture-book, published the year after Scrambled Eggs Super! and Horton Hears a Who! With its catalogue of fantastic fictional creatures, it is reminiscent of earlier Seuss titles like Scrambled Eggs Super! , as well as If I Ran the Zoo and McElligot's Pool . With its alphabetic element however, it is also unlike these earlier books, and does something wonderful and new, introducing the idea, through a wild and wacky story, that there are other kinds of letters, and by extension, other sorts of writing systems out there, beyond the one that young children might know. I never encountered this one as a child - something I now regret - and picked it up as part of my recently undertaken Dr. Seuss retrospective, in which I plan to read and review all forty-four of his classic picture-books, in chronological publication order. It is a project that I began as an act of personal protest against the suppression of six of the author/artist's titles - this one, as well as And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , McElligot's Pool , If I Ran the Zoo , Scrambled Eggs Super! and The Cat's Quizzer - by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, because they contain outdated and potentially offensive elements. As a young girl who had a fascination with languages and writing systems, a girl who created her own make-believe kingdom with its own history and elaborate customs, I would have adored On Beyond Zebra!. As it happens, I too created my own letters, just like Dr. Seuss, and my kingdom (Arcania) had its own language, with its own alphabet. Sadly, I have lost all my papers from that period in my life, but I recall that I enjoyed creating the rather ornate letters in my writing system, which was modeled on the Latin alphabet, but which used very different characters to represent upper and lower case letters, and long and short forms of the vowels. Reading this picture-book reminded me of the pleasure I took in creating my own language as a girl, and how that imaginative play led to my interest in real-world languages as an adult. I got a real thrill, therefore, reading this tale of another child discovering such wonders, and perusing the letters Dr. Seuss created, beyond Z: [image] In thinking of why Dr. Seuss Enterprises chose to suppress this title, I must conclude that it is owing to the letter Spazz, used to spell Spazzim, a camel-like creature ridden by the Nazzim of Bazzim. This fellow looks to be Middle-Eastern, in a sort of vague way - the camel-riding, the headdress - and is no doubt interpreted by critics as an example of Orientalism. For my part, while I see that the depiction is a caricature - something upon which all of Seuss' work rests - I did not perceive anything hateful in it. If anything, it felt like a reference to stories like Aladdin , or other tales from The Arabian Nights . I would imagine that any number of western retellings of the latter could also be accused of Orientalism, so let's hope these self-styled arbiters of morality don't come for those classic stories as well. It strikes me as such a deep shame, that a book like this, which could lead children naturally and creatively into a better awareness of the richness of human language, and of the writing systems of the world, should be suppressed because of one arguably offensive caricature. It is ironic that, in taking steps to (in their own imagination) defend other cultures and peoples, these critics have decided to oppose a story that could be used to teach young children an appreciation for the linguistic diversity of our world, and for the cultural diversity from which it springs. Then again, these people really aren't defenders of culture (their own or anyone else's) at all, but architects of a new uni-culture, to be enforced through bullying and character assassination. One need only look at the specious accusations of far-right racism lobbed at any reader who opposes this move on the part of Dr. Seuss Enterprises, by some of our commentariat, as well as by private citizens online, to see that this is true. Joshua T. Katz, a professor of linguistics at Princeton University who teaches a freshman seminar entitled "Wordplay: A Wry Plod from Babel to Scrabble" - a course which includes both On Beyond Zebra and James Joyce's Finnegans Wake on its syllabus - concludes in his recent article in The New Criterion, that this recent censorious move by Dr. Seuss Enterprises is a form of madness. I quite agree. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 29, 2021
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Mar 29, 2021
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Mar 29, 2021
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0394800788
| 9780394800783
| 0394800788
| 4.21
| 110,771
| 1954
| 1982
|
really liked it
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That faithful elephant Horton returns in this follow-up to his initial adventure, chronicled in
Horton Hatches the Egg
, this time finding himself
That faithful elephant Horton returns in this follow-up to his initial adventure, chronicled in
Horton Hatches the Egg
, this time finding himself the guardian of an entire microscopic city. Hearing a voice coming from a speck of dust floating by him one day at the watering hole, kindhearted Horton realizes that there are tiny people on the speck - people so tiny they can't be seen. Guiding the speck to rest on a flower, Horton decides he will protect these miniature Whos - as the people are called - and the flower which has become their refuge. Unfortunately for him, the rest of the residents of the Jungle of Nool think he's gone mad, talking to people who aren't there, and, led by an officious kangaroo, decide that something must be done to put a stop to Horton's unconventional behavior... First published in 1954, fourteen years after Horton Hatches the Egg , and the same year as Scrambled Eggs Super! , Horton Hears a Who! was Dr. Seuss' tenth picture-book, and is a treasured memento of my reading childhood. Much like its companion, this was a bedtime favorite when I was a girl, and I must have listened to and then read it thousands of times. Just as the earlier book had its iconic Hortonian phrase - "I meant what I said, and I said what I meant, an elephant's faithful, 100%" - so too did this second story, with its refrain that "I’ll just have to save him. Because, after all, A person's a person, no matter how small", and I could have recited either, at the drop of a hat. Despite its status as a girlhood favorite, I hadn't picked up the book in many years, until prompted by my recently begun Dr. Seuss retrospective, in which I plan to read all forty-four of his classic picture-books, in chronological publication order. I began this project as an act of personal protest against the suppression of six of the author/artist's titles - And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , McElligot's Pool , If I Ran the Zoo , Scrambled Eggs Super! , On Beyond Zebra! and The Cat's Quizzer - by Dr. Seuss Enterprises. See my review of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , to be found HERE, for a fuller exploration of my thoughts on that matter. Leaving that aside, I enjoyed this reread, but perhaps not as much as I expected to do, nor as much as I enjoyed my reread of Horton Hatches the Egg . It is still an excellent book, featuring a thought-provoking story, a fun rhyming text, and Dr. Seuss' own trademark illustrations, done this time in black line drawings, with blue and red color accents. All that said, I noticed that the rhyme scheme wasn't quite as accomplished as in some of Seuss' other titles, stumbling in a few places. I also found the story somewhat more off-putting than I recall it being, on an emotional level, with all of the other animals hunting Horton down. The central message, on the other hand, that people deserve to live in peace, no matter how small their society (or their persons!), no matter how much less powerful they are, compared to others, is still as relevant today as it ever was. So too is Horton's declaration that, as someone larger and stronger, it is up to him to protect these smaller, more vulnerable beings, even in the face of opposition from others in his own society. This vision of the just use of power, and of strength, is one many readers will instinctively find themselves agreeing to, I would imagine. We're hard wired, as mammals, to protect our young, and many of us recoil from the idea of the weak being bullied or exploited by the strong. The book is dedicated to Mitsugi Nakamura, a Japanese professor with whom Dr. Seuss became friends, after World War II, and many read it as an oblique apology for its creator's racist anti-Japanese cartoons, during that conflict, or as an exploration of the relationship between the USA and Japan, in the post-war period, when the latter was in desperate need of aid and protection. It's interesting to note that although Horton Hears a Who! was not on the list of six books selected for suppression by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, it has received similar criticism as those titles did, being described in one academic paper ("The Cat is Out of the Bag: Orientalism, Anti-Blackness, and White Supremacy in Dr. Seuss's Children's Books”) as reinforcing themes of "White supremacy, Orientalism, and White saviorism." Emboldened by their success with the titles mentioned above, one wonders whether these cultural critics and self-styled reformers of public morality will next come for titles like this? A sobering thought, and a development that Seuss seems to have instinctively anticipated in his story, in which Horton's sincere desire to help draws ridicule and persecution from the big kangaroo, who eventually organizes a mob to oppose him. It seems highly likely that these cultural vandals will continue to attempt to disappear works of literature and art, so it's really no wonder that Seuss titles have been dominating the bestseller lists, of late, as people scramble to buy the books while they can. Truly, a sorry debacle. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 27, 2021
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Mar 27, 2021
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Mar 28, 2021
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0394900855
| 9780394900858
| 0394900855
| 3.77
| 2,798
| 1953
| 1953
|
liked it
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Speaking to his younger sister one day in this rhyming picture-book adventure, the imaginative Peter T. Hooper spins a tale of the most extraordinary
Speaking to his younger sister one day in this rhyming picture-book adventure, the imaginative Peter T. Hooper spins a tale of the most extraordinary scrambled eggs ever made - by him, of course! Hen eggs being entirely too mundane for him, this ambitious youngster heads out into the world to collect some very unusual and rare eggs, produced by some very inventive made-up creatures. From the Long-Legger Kwong, whose eggs need to be caught before they hit the ground, to the Grickily Gractus, who lays her eggs in a cactus, these birds produce eggs that are worth tracking down, just as Petter T. Hooper produces the much vaunted "Scrambled Eggs Super..." Originally published in 1954, some four years after his If I Ran the Zoo , Scrambled Eggs Super! is Dr. Seuss' ninth picture-book, and feels like a variation on that earlier book, and on McElligot's Pool , published in 1947. All three titles are a marvelous catalogue of fantastic creatures, dreamt up by a young boy narrator who imagines the fish he might catch in McElligot's Pool , the animals he could imprison in If I Ran the Zoo , and the eggs he might collect in Scrambled Eggs Super! The artwork here is vintage Seuss fun, full of quirky animal characters, expressive human ones - the little girl's face in the final scene had me chuckling! - and created using the black line drawings and colorful accents of earlier titles. The wacky storyline, colorful artwork and rhyming text all make this an entertaining read-aloud selection, like so many of Dr. Seuss' famous titles. I have vague memories of enjoying Scrambled Eggs Super! as a girl - some of the scenes really popped out at me, during this reread, and I smiled in recognition at some of the birds - but it wasn't one of my childhood favorites, when it comes to Dr. Seuss' work, and I hadn't thought of it in years. My current reread was prompted by the Seuss retrospective I have recently begun, in which I will be reading and reviewing all forty-four of his classic picture-books, in chronological publication order. This is a project that I began as an act of personal protest against the suppression of six of the author/artist's titles - this one, as well as And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , McElligot's Pool , If I Ran the Zoo , On Beyond Zebra! and The Cat's Quizzer - by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, an action with which I vehemently disagree. This decision was purportedly taken by Dr. Seuss Enterprises in response to outdated and ostensibly offensive elements in these six books. Reading through Scrambled Eggs Super! I was able to identify two potentially problematic scenes that no doubt led to its inclusion amongst the titles to be suppressed. The first of these was the one involving the arctic Grice, a bird living near the North Pole, whose eggs are obtained by a boatload of men in furry-looking jumpsuits. These men, riding in their Katta-ma-Side (a boat made of the sea leopard's hide), are interpreted by most to be a caricature of the Inuit, whose depiction seems to be a recurring theme - see my review of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street and McElligot's Pool for my interpretation of the other appearances of the Inuit, thus far in my reading project - in this effort to challenge and disappear some of Seuss' work. The second potentially problematic scene involved the Mount Strookoo Cookoo, whose eggs were collected by Ali, a figure outfitted in traditional Turkish clothing, whose depiction might be interpreted by some as being Orientalist in nature. As I mentioned in my review of If I Ran the Zoo , it's important to recall that Dr. Seuss' method of storytelling, whether textual or artistic, is heavily reliant upon caricature, and it is often satirical in nature. In thinking about these challenged titles, and considering the specific depictions being criticized, I have found it very helpful to distinguish between cases where the caricature of non-European and non-Euro-American peoples is of the same tone and kind as that of European and Euro-American peoples, and those cases where it is not. In my analysis, I concluded that And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street and McElligot's Pool contained depictions that might be considered racially or culturally insensitive, given the current zeitgeist, but that lacked the animus necessary to label them as racist, or truly objectionable. They were not, in other words, demeaning or hateful - simply satirical, in the way that other depictions in those books were satirical. Sadly, I did not arrive at the same conclusion, reading If I Ran the Zoo , where I found the controversial scenes were indeed of a demeaning and dehumanizing nature. The two aforementioned scenes, here in Scrambled Eggs Super!, belong very much to the former category, and while I would never question another reader's right to object to them - it is not my place, after all, to tell others how to interpret what they read - I am amazed that they resulted in this book being pulled from publication. The scene with the Grice-hunters never identifies the people in question in anything but a fictional way (no mention of the word "Eskimo," which, by contrast, can be found in the text of McElligot's Pool ), and their visual depiction is not particularly pointed or demeaning. It's clear that in the narrator's mind, northern people are associated with northern birds, as they all live in the north, and that no particular commentary (positive or negative) is being offered on the humans in question. Not so with the Turkish Ali, who is described in the text as "brave Ali," for his actions in fighting off flocks of cuckoos, in order to complete his mission. While both of these depictions employ some stereotype - the "Inuit" figures in furry clothing, Ali in a turban - it is not at all clear to me that this stereotyping is any more pointed or hurtful than any other stereotyping that a caricaturist such as Seuss would use. I've made the point several times now, during the course of this reading project, that I have no objection to other readers deciding that these books are indeed hurtful, and to their making the decision not to share them with the young people in the lives. My objection is to the idea, implicit in Dr. Seuss Enterprises' recent decision, that because some have found these books offensive, no one else should be allowed to easily access them. I have seen the specious argument floated about, both by members of our chattering classes and by private citizens on the internet, that this is not a "book banning," because it is the copyright holder who is making the decision to remove these books, rather than some governmental agency. I find this a curiously naive attitude, and suspect that it rests upon some rather disingenuous double standards. Imagine the following scenario: an author has written a best-selling picture-book featuring same-sex parents. Said author owns the rights to the book (unlikely, in today's publishing market, but let's pretend), and when he dies, those rights pass to a relative who, for religious reasons, believes same-sex marriage is wrong. Acting in accordance with her conscience, the relative decides to stop publication, sincerely convinced that the book in question will harm vulnerable children, by sending them the wrong messages. Would the readers and critics applauding this recent decision by Dr. Seuss Enterprises still be arguing that nothing censorious was going on, in the foregoing scenario, because the one taking action to suppress the book was the copyright holder? Or would they be vehemently protesting what they saw as the imposition of someone else's moral code onto their own reading choices? I think everyone knows what the reaction would be, to the unlikely scenario posited above, and it certainly wouldn't involve the mental gymnastics we've seen commentators put themselves through recently, to show that this whole debacle wasn't censorship, because copyright holders have the legal authority to make these decisions. A few years ago, objecting to then Vice President Mike Pence's stance on LGBT rights, the talkshow host John Oliver dreamt up a satirical picture-book, A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo , in response to the publication of another picture-book, Marlon Bundo's Day in the Life of the Vice President , by the Vice President's daughter, Charlotte Pence. While I had some ethical issues with the whole thing, mostly surrounding the idea of attacking a public figure, not through his own work, but through his family, this still strikes me as a superior response to the existence of books with which one doesn't agree, compared to the strategy employed here. Publish more books! Offer an alternative (and there are MANY, in the world of picture-books) to the stories one finds objectionable. Don't just demand that the books available to the public conform to your own moral compass, as if there were no duty incumbent upon you, as a member of a free society, to persuade people, rather than to dictate to them. People like to make up their own minds, in this and anything else, and they do not like to feel that others are curtailing their choices, particularly when it comes to the books and other media that they consume. For my own part, I found nothing here that would even remotely have warranted the step take by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, if I were of the opinion that such a step was ever justified. Scrambled Eggs Super! isn't a personal favorite, when it comes to Seuss' oeuvre, but is one I would still recommend, to picture-book readers looking for tales which celebrate a child's imaginative powers. ...more |
Notes are private!
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Mar 25, 2021
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Mar 25, 2021
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Mar 26, 2021
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Hardcover
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| 0394800818
| 9780394800813
| 0394800818
| 3.83
| 11,094
| Oct 12, 1950
| 1977
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it was ok
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Visiting the city zoo in this rhyming romp of a picture-book, young Gerald McGrew imagines what he would do, if he were in charge. Setting free all of
Visiting the city zoo in this rhyming romp of a picture-book, young Gerald McGrew imagines what he would do, if he were in charge. Setting free all of the "boring" animals like lions and tigers, he would go on a worldwide hunt for more unusual creatures, from a ten-footed lion to an Elephant-Cat. What follows is an ever more imaginative list of fictional creatures that Gerald would track down and capture, to make McGrew's Zoo the best in the world... Originally published in 1950, and awarded a Caldecott Honor in 1951, If I Ran the Zoo was Dr. Seuss' eighth picture-book, and feels very much akin to the earlier McElligot's Pool , published in 1947, and also awarded a Caldecott Honor (in 1948). Both books contain a wildly creative list of fictional creatures - fish and other aquatic life in McElligot's Pool , terrestrial and avian species in If I Ran the Zoo - all dreamt up by the young boy-narrator. Both also feature Seuss' strikingly expressive cartoon-style artwork that makes such excellent use of color and form to create a visual landscape full of both wonder and humor. In McElligot's Pool , the artwork alternated to great effect between black-and-white drawings and full-color watercolor paintings, whereas here, the illustrations are done in black line, with full color accents. This latter may take the form of colorful figures against a white page, or it may consist of a page that is itself a deep color - the black background on the page with the Iota, or the red background behind the family of deer with interconnected horns (AKA antlers) - but in either case, the result is far more colorful than in many of the artist's previous titles. It's easy to see why both of these books received the Caldecott Honor, and it's tempting to read them as companions to one another, although I am aware of the subsequent If I Ran the Circus (1956), which might also be considered a companion. The text in If I Ran the Zoo seems to offer a further development of Dr. Seuss' wordplay, as there are far more made-up creatures here than in any previous titles - Joats, Lunks, Iotas, Thwerlls, Chuggs, Tufted Mazurkas, and so on - and more onomatopoeic adaptations of existing words: "And, speaking of birds, there's the Russian Palooski, / Whose headski is redski and belly is blueski. / I'll get one of them for my Zooski McGrewski." Unlike so many of Seuss' other books, I never read this one as a child - this is, in fact, my first encounter with it - but if I had, I can imagine that I might well have loved it for its inventiveness. Then again, I might well have loathed it for its blithe acceptance of the idea of hunting down and imprisoning the marvelous, or for its snide attitude toward some of the people Gerald encounters. More on that anon. I chose to finally pick it up at this moment in time because I am currently undertaking a Seuss retrospective, in which I will be reading and reviewing all forty-four of his classic picture-books, in chronological publication order. This is a project that I began as an act of personal protest against the suppression of six of the author/artist's titles - this one, as well as And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , McElligot's Pool , Scrambled Eggs Super! , On Beyond Zebra! and The Cat's Quizzer - by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, an action I consider both absurd and ill-judged. I am opposed to this decision on the part of Dr. Seuss Enterprises both on principle - the effects of self-censorship on the part of publishers and news media being every bit as deleterious to a culture of free expression, as anything a tyrannical government could enact - and, in the case of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street and McElligot's Pool , reviewed previously, on the merits of the individual books themselves. Although there were caricatures in these two earlier titles that I found to be racially and culturally insensitive, they lacked the kind of animus I would think necessary for them to be judged racist, or for any kind of action to reasonably be taken against them (assuming one believed that such an action should ever be taken in the first place). That is, of course, a subjective judgment, and I understand it is by no means universal. As I mentioned in my review of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , it is not my place to tell others what they should find offensive or hurtful in the books they read, any more than it is their place to tell me. Unlike some of the self-appointed guardians of morality out there who seem to be applauding this development in censoriousness, I myself was not offended by the titles in question, and did not find them hateful. Sadly, I cannot say the same with this one. Unlike the aforementioned caricatures in And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street and McElligot's Pool , I found the ostensibly offensive elements in If I Ran the Zoo truly objectionable. I think the difference is that in the earlier books, the depictions in question - the Chinese man with sticks in And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , the "Eskimo" (AKA Inuit) man next to his igloo in McElligot's Pool - were not demeaning, even though they were satirical, and relied upon stereotype (the Chinese person with chopsticks, the Inuit person in the furry anorak). One could argue that all of Seuss' work is satirical, and that everyone depicted in his books is a bit of a caricature, whatever their racial and cultural background. Here however, the non-European characters are all depicted in ways that not only draw attention to their racial status - the Asian helpers who, according to the text, "all wear their eyes at a slant" - but also invariably show them in subservient roles, or else equate them to animals. The aforementioned Asian helpers who go marching along, carrying a cage on their heads, with Gerald McGrew confidently riding along on top. The tribal chieftain from the Desert of Zind, who, like his Mulligatawny steed, would make a good addition to the zoo, in the narrator's opinion. The eight Persian Princes carrying the Gusset, Gherkin, Gasket and Gootch, whose names (unlike those of the animals they carry) don't need to be remembered. The two little beings - apparently meant to be Central African pygmies? - who carry the Tufted Mazurka from the African island of Yerka, whom I didn't even realize were meant to be human at first, given their depiction. All of these scenes were deeply distasteful to me, and so too was the overarching story-line. The idea of scouring the world for the most wondrous and magical of creatures, only to shove them into tiny cages, would have deeply distressed me as a child, and makes me faintly queasy even now, as an adult. Clearly, If I Ran the Zoo isn't destined to become one of my favorites, when it comes to Dr. Seuss' work, and I can understand why other readers have found it so offensive, given my own reaction to it. As mentioned above, I am opposed to the suppression of this or any other book, through any form of censorship (including self censorship on the part of the publisher or copyright holder), and I certainly did not approach it with any predisposition to disapprove of it. Nevertheless, disapprove of it I did, and I would not choose to recommend it to, nor to share it with young people, nor would I condemn others - parents, teachers, librarians, storytellers - from following that same course. By the same token however, I would not condemn those who continue to read the book, either to themselves or to the children in their care, and I cannot approve of that choice being taken away from them. They are not bound by my opinions, or by the opinions of any other. In a free society it is no one's place to tell them what they should and should not read, and how they should interpret what they do read. I have seen the argument advanced that the suppression of these Dr. Seuss books is meant, like all forms of (supposedly) benign censorship, to prevent harm, but I think the harm created by the suppression of any work of art and/or literature far outweighs any potential harm created by the consumption of that work of art or literature. People like to decide these things for themselves. I know I do, and I reject outright the idea that I should substitute another's judgment for my own. Thus far in my reading project, I have found two cases where I didn't agree with the critics, and one where I did. I will continue to read, and to think for myself, and hope others will as well. Those who would deny me that right would do well to recall that forbidding something, even obliquely, through suppression rather than outright ban, is to give it great power. In the end, censorious acts are not just totalitarian in nature, but ultimately both stupid and futile. ...more |
Notes are private!
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Mar 24, 2021
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Mar 24, 2021
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Mar 24, 2021
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Hardcover
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| 0394800753
| 9780394800752
| 0394800753
| 4.05
| 7,227
| 1949
| 1976
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really liked it
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Young Bartholomew Cubbins and King Derwin of Didd return in this amusing follow-up to their initial adventure,
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
Young Bartholomew Cubbins and King Derwin of Didd return in this amusing follow-up to their initial adventure,
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
. Now a page in the king's castle, Bartholomew is dismayed when the foolish King Derwin decides that snow, sun, rain and fog are boring, and that he wants something new to fall from the sky. Summoning his court magicians, the king commands them to create something new, in the way of weather, and that sinister cabal complies, brewing up a sticky, gooey green substance known as ooblek. Soon everyone in the castle and kingdom is stuck in greenish goo, from the humblest farmer to the king himself, paralyzed on his throne. It falls to Bartholomew to point out the obvious - that this is all the king's fault - and to demand an apology. For mysterious reasons, the simple words "I'm Sorry" have a magic all their own... First published in 1949, some eleven years after the first story featuring Bartholomew Cubbins and King Derwin, Bartholomew and the Ooblek was Dr. Seuss' seventh picture-book, and it was awarded a Caldecott Honor in 1950. It was a perennial favorite in my childhood home, and many are the nights when I asked for it to be read to me, or read it on my own, once I was able. Something about that gooey, sticky ooblek was fascinating to me, as a girl - striking me as simultaneously frightening and funny. My present reread was prompted by my recently undertaken Dr. Seuss retrospective, in which I plan to read and review all forty-four of his classic picture-books, in chronological publication order. It is a project I began as an act of personal protest against the suppression of six of the author/artist's titles - And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , McElligot's Pool , If I Ran the Zoo , Scrambled Eggs Super! , On Beyond Zebra! and The Cat's Quizzer - by Dr. Seuss Enterprises. See my review of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , to be found HERE, for a fuller exploration of my thoughts on that matter. In any case, I found Bartholomew and the Ooblek every bit as engaging as I remembered, during this current reread. The story highlights the foolish hubris of King Derwin - also a theme in The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins - who imagines that he can improve upon nature, and have a better form of weather created through artificial means. One could read it as the hubris of humanity, so frequently thinking we can outdo nature, or the hubris of the elite - kings and other leaders imagining it is their right to make such far-reaching decisions by themselves. However one reads it, the consequences of the king's decision demonstrate that such actions have the potential to be immensely destructive, while the conclusion of the story highlights the important role that humility and repentance can play, in restoring harmony to human society, and to the wider world. Learning to admit our mistakes, and to apologize for them, is a difficult lesson sometimes, even for adults, so Dr. Seuss' entertaining little fable, which presents this process in such an amusing way, is most welcome. The accompanying artwork, done in black and white, with a sole color accent - green, for the ooblek - is immensely expressive. The limited color scheme really highlights the outlandish and surprising nature of the ooblek, and brilliantly complements the story. I can easily see why this was awarded a Caldecott Honor, despite the fact that it seems at first glance to be a retreat from Dr. Seuss' more colorful style, first seen in McElligot's Pool . Highly recommended to all picture-book readers, whether they enjoy unusual fairy-tale-style stories, or are fans of the creator. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 23, 2021
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Mar 23, 2021
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Mar 23, 2021
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Hardcover
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| 0394800869
| 9780394800868
| B0006ARM2I
| 4.05
| 4,715
| 1948
| 1975
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really liked it
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Marching along one day, munching on moose-moss and enjoying life with his herd, the eponymous Thidwick finds himself granting a little Bingle Bug's re
Marching along one day, munching on moose-moss and enjoying life with his herd, the eponymous Thidwick finds himself granting a little Bingle Bug's request to ride along on his antlers**. After all, this prospective guest is tiny, and it wouldn't really effect Thidwick one way or another. Unfortunately for our cervine hero, the bug is just the first in a series of ever larger creatures that decide to take up residence in his antlers. None of these newcomers, from the spiders to the Zinn-a-zu Birds, the woodpecker to the squirrels, asks Thidwick for his permission to move in, but they all strenuously object when he attempts to follow his herd across Lake Winna-Bango, in search of the food he needs. Karma is coming for these pests however, and when Thidwick is pursued by human hunters, his realization that he is about to shed his antlers leads both to his own freedom, and to some just desserts for the freeloaders... Originally published in 1948, Thidwick the Bighearted Moose was Dr. Seuss' sixth picture-book, following upon And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937), The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1938), The King's Stilts (1939), Horton Hatches the Egg (1940) and McElligot's Pool (1947). It is a book that I recall reading many times in my childhood, and although I had not picked it up in many years, I still had vivid memories of the image of Thidwick stumbling along underneath the immense weight of all of his uninvited "guests." This current reread was prompted by my recently undertaken Dr. Seuss retrospective, in which I plan to read and review all forty-four of his classic picture-books, in chronological publication order. This is a project I began as an act of personal protest against the suppression of six of the author/artist's titles - And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , McElligot's Pool , If I Ran the Zoo , Scrambled Eggs Super! , On Beyond Zebra! and The Cat's Quizzer - by Dr. Seuss Enterprises. See my review of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , to be found HERE, for a fuller exploration of my thoughts on that matter. Leaving that unfortunate and highly objectionable development aside, this is an entertaining and thought-provoking picture-book, as enjoyable now as when I first had it read to me, in my early childhood. It pairs a witty story told in rhyme with appealing, humorous artwork, and explores the reality that unlimited kindness and forbearance can be very damaging for the one being kind. Through its story of Thidwick, who tries to grin and bear it, despite the outrageous and abusive behavior of his 'guests,' it seems to argue for the idea of balance, and for the notion that one shouldn't allow oneself to be taken advantage of, in the name of either politeness or generosity. Finding this kind of balance can be tricky, even for adults, so Dr. Seuss is to be commended for introducing these ideas to young children, and for giving them a model of what can happen, when one doesn't stand up for oneself. Of course, the story can also be read as a warning of how not to behave as a guest, demonstrating that those who make a pest of themselves, and who take advantage of others, will find themselves very unwelcome. The artwork, done in black and white, with reddish and blue-green accents, feels like a return to an earlier style, after the magical multi-colored world of McElligot's Pool . Despite its more limited palette however, the illustrations are immensely expressive, capturing both the humor and horror of poor Thidwick's situation. All in all, Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose is yet another Dr. Seuss title worthy of its status as a childhood classic, and is one I would recommend to all picture-books readers. **Please note that although Dr. Seuss uses the term "horns," moose have antlers. Antlers are found on cervids, are made of bone, are usually branched, and are shed every year. Horns are found on bovids, are made of bone and keratin, are not branched, and are permanent. ...more |
Notes are private!
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Mar 21, 2021
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Mar 21, 2021
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Mar 21, 2021
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Hardcover
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| 0394800834
| 9780394800837
| 0394800834
| 4.06
| 5,586
| Sep 12, 1947
| Sep 12, 1947
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really liked it
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That imaginative young boy from Dr. Seuss' very first picture-book,
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
, published in 1937, returns in t
That imaginative young boy from Dr. Seuss' very first picture-book,
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
, published in 1937, returns in this second adventure, full of all of the make-believe and whimsy that one would expect. Advised that he is unlikely to catch anything in the eponymous McElligot's Pool, which serves as a sort of trash dump for the farmers thereabouts, Marco demurs, certain that there is a possibility, at the very least, of catching some interesting fish. What follows is a wondrous catalogue of all of the unlikely fish that might be swimming up the theoretical underground spring connecting the pool to the sea. From dogfish with floppy ears (chasing catfish, of course), to fish with checkerboard bellies; from sunburnt tropical fish to anorak-wearing arctic fish (more on this anon); from two-headed eels to roughneck lobsters - the possibilities are as limitless as one's own imagination, leading Marco to conclude that he is no fool at all, for fishing in McElligot's Pool... A delightful pean to the power of the imagination, McElligot's Pool was first published in 1947, ten years after Marco's previous adventure, and seven years after Seuss' (then) most recent picture-book, Horton Hatches the Egg . Between 'McElligot' and 'Horton' lie seven years of war (World War II) and its immediate aftermath. Seuss, who was active as a cartoonist during this period - his adult war work has been criticized as racist propaganda, and was something that he himself apparently regretted, in later years - did not publish any children's books between 1940 and 1947. Although it was never a personal favorite in my childhood home, I do recall that we owned a copy of this book, when I was a girl, and that I read and enjoyed it many times. I picked it up for this reread as part of a recently undertaken Dr. Seuss retrospective, launched as an act of personal protest against the recent decision from Dr. Seuss Enterprises to suppress six of the author's titles, because they contain outdated and potentially offensive elements. Those titles include this one, McElligot's Pool, as well as And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , If I Ran the Zoo , Scrambled Eggs Super! , On Beyond Zebra! and The Cat's Quizzer . McElligot's Pool was chosen as a Caldecott Honor Book in 1948, and it is not difficult to see why, given its entertaining text and magical artwork, which work so well together. Dr. Seuss continued to develop and improve his wordplay in the book, which, like its immediate predecessor ( Horton Hatches the Egg ), displayed a rhythmically rhyming text not seen in his first three children's books. His artwork also continued to evolve here, utilizing far more color than in previous titles, where the black-and-white drawings were often relieved by a single color accent ( The King's Stilts ), or a limited range of color accents ( And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street ). Here the illustrations alternate between black-and-white spreads, and full-color ones utilizing a wide variety of shades, to marvelous effect. The sheer inventiveness of Marco's catalogue of wondrous fish is delightful, and the accompanying artwork beautiful. In short: a wonderful picture-book! What then has caused Dr. Seuss Enterprises to stop publishing it, despite its undeniably good qualities, its status as a classic of American childhood, and the fact that it has been a perennial bestseller? The trouble lies chiefly with the aforementioned "arctic fish," which are described in the text as "Eskimo Fish," and which are seen swimming past a stereotypical "Eskimo," complete with igloo and furry anorak. The fish too are depicted in this style, with a furry collar around their faces, suggesting anoraks of their own. The two-page spread depicting this scene directly follows another, depicting tropical fish swimming past a stereotypical tropical islander, shown taking a siesta underneath a palm tree. I haven't seen much commentary on the latter image, although it's entirely possible I've missed it. In any case, there is no doubt that the word "Eskimo" is now considered outdated, and even offensive to some, and that terms like Inuit and Yupik are preferred. At the time of original publication, obviously, this was not the case, and "Eskimo" was considered by most to be a neutral word, used to describe a human demographic group, in much the same way that "Negro" once was. We don't use the latter word today, save in a historical sense - referring to the Negro League, for instance - and I had always assumed that "Eskimo" was the same. I own a collection of folklore from Inupiaq storyteller Lela Kiana Oman, for instance, that was originally published in 1959, and is entitled Eskimo Legends . It would simply never occur to me that it should be banned and suppressed, as a result. To be fair, it would never occur to me that any book should be banned or suppressed, regardless of the circumstances. Far more recently, in 1990, Ka-Ha-Si and The Loon: An Eskimo Legend was published. While I didn't care for the book myself - one of my main critiques, as it happens, was the use of the term "Eskimo," which I found unacceptably vague in a folktale retelling, as it leaves the reader in the dark when it comes to the cultural origin of the story - I certainly wasn't calling for it to be pulled from library shelves. Are we supposed to just discard every book that contains outdated vocabulary, or words that were considered unexceptional in their own day, but offensive in ours? How far should we take it? So much for the word "Eskimo." But what about the image? Here, I can understand some readers' discomfort, as the artwork certainly does feel very much like a caricature. Then again, it doesn't seem any more like a caricature to me than the figure of the somnolescent tropical islander, or the hayseed farmer who initially warns Marco, at the beginning of the book. Dr. Seuss is an artist whose work relies upon caricature, of all kinds, and I don't perceive any more malice behind this particular example, than behind any others of his that I have seen. That is, of course, a matter of personal experience and perception, and I am alive to the fact that the "Eskimo" image exists as part of a larger trend of stereotypical depiction, rather than in isolation, as a single example. As I mentioned in my review of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , it is not my place to tell other readers what they should or should not find offensive and/or hurtful in the books they encounter, just as it is not their place to tell me. I have no argument with those who, seeing this single two-page spread, decide they would rather avoid the book altogether, and choose not to share it with the children in their lives. The world is wide, and there are many books in it. Readers looking for children's books with a culturally authentic depiction of Inuit peoples, by the by, can do no better than turn to Inhabit Media, an Inuit-owned publisher based in Nunavut, Canada, whose children's catalogue is almost universally excellent. But I digress. It is possible to acknowledge that there are some outdated and potentially insensitive elements in McElligot's Pool, but to still believe, either that the book still has something to offer, or that it should, as a matter of principle, be left up to the individual whether to read it. I happen to believe both of these things, and I find the decision to suppress it deeply disturbing and offensive. I have seen a number of false arguments put forward around this issue, both in the commentariat and by private citizens on the internet. The first is that these books have no artistic and/or literary merit, and would be small loss if they disappeared. This is demonstrably false, both in the case of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , which I reviewed a few days ago, and here, with McElligot's Pool. These are marvelous books of high quality, books which have enchanted and entertained generations of readers, becoming a part of our culture and our heritage in the process. Which brings me to the second false claim: to whit, that these books are not particularly popular, do not sell well, and will not be missed. Here again, I must disagree. I have worked in the book business for thirty years now, and have never known a time when Seuss books - including these six titles - didn't sell steadily. There is a consistent demand for them, and the reaction of the public to the news of this recent decision by Dr. Seuss Enterprises - at least fifteen Seuss titles have shot onto Amazon's bestseller list in the past week, and library requests have skyrocketed (42 outstanding hold requests for McElligot's Pool at the NYPL, as I write this) - demonstrates that the bulk of the citizenry is either uncomfortable with, or deeply opposed to this development. In the end, people want to decide for themselves what to read, and what they should think about it. Finally, I have seen the ludicrous argument that this is no book banning, and that there is nothing censorious going on here, with the decision to cease publication of these six books. I'll repeat something I wrote in my review of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street to answer this disingenuous claim: This book may not have been censored by any government entity, nor outright banned by any institution, but the final effect of this decision to self-censor will be the same as if it had. Publication will stop, the book will become scarce, libraries will begin removing copies from their shelves - this has already begun at some libraries - and the books will become less and less accessible, even to those who want to read them. It strikes me that the harm caused by this - authors' estates and publishers pulling their own books, libraries cooperating to purge objectionable material - will be far greater than anything these Seuss books could inflict. Truly, a sad moment for the children's literature world, and for the world of letters in general. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 19, 2021
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Mar 19, 2021
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Mar 19, 2021
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 039480077X
| 9780394800776
| 039480077X
| 4.19
| 48,952
| 1940
| Oct 12, 2004
|
it was amazing
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I have but to see the cover of this classic picture-book about Horton the elephant for the words "I meant what I said / And I said what I meant... / A
I have but to see the cover of this classic picture-book about Horton the elephant for the words "I meant what I said / And I said what I meant... / An elephant's faithful / One hundred per cent!" to float up through my memory. This was a story read to me countless times as a young child, and then read by me countless times, once I gained the ability, and that refrain never fails to elicit a thrill of fellow-feeling and pride. The story of the kindhearted Horton, imposed upon by that lazy Maizie bird, climbing up on to her egg to keep it warm, while she goes on a short "vacation," it features any number of challenges for the titular elephantine hero. Enduring all kinds of weather, suffering the mockery of his friends, standing up to hunters, surviving being carted off to a zoo and made a spectacle of, Horton remains faithful, keeping his word no matter what life throws at him. And when Maizie returns, claiming the egg she had no hand in caring for, something magical happens - the egg hatches an entirely new kind of creature: an elephant bird! This is, the narrative informs us, how it should be... Originally published in 1940, Horton Hatches the Egg was the first of two picture-books devoted to the doings of the eponymous elephantine hero, followed by Horton Hears a Who! , published in 1954. It was the fourth of Dr. Seuss' picture-books to be released, following upon And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937), The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1938) and The King's Stilts (1939). Although a treasured memento of my childhood, I had not picked this book up in years, until prompted by my recently begun Dr. Seuss retrospective, in which I plan to read and review all forty-four of his classic picture-books, in chronological publication order. I launched this project as an act of personal protest against the suppression of six of the author/artist's titles - And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , McElligot's Pool , If I Ran the Zoo , Scrambled Eggs Super! , On Beyond Zebra! and The Cat's Quizzer - by Dr. Seuss Enterprises. See my review of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , to be found HERE, for a fuller exploration of my thoughts on that matter. I think that it is here, in Horton Hatches the Egg, that we begin to see the full emergence of Dr. Seuss the wordsmith, as his rhyming text rollicks merrily along, perfectly communicating the story through a perfectly rhythmic text. And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street had some rhyme to it, but it didn't have that seemingly free and easy, effortless feeling that one finds here, in this tale of the faithful Horton, while The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins and The King's Stilts were told entirely in prose. Unlike these three predecessors, this tale of Horton is one that begs to be read aloud, rolling off the tongue in entertaining waves: "There rang out the noisiest ear-splitting squeaks / From the egg that he'd sat on for fifty-one weeks! / A thumping! A bumping! A wild alive scratching! / "My egg!" shouted Horton. "MY EGG! WHY IT'S HATCHING!" The rhyming structure, the use of italics and capitalization - all work together to create a particular rhythm, as one reads. This isn't to say, of course, that the others don't make for a good read-aloud, simply that they don't have that cadence one associates with their celebrated creator. The proverb that an elephant never forgets is one that predates Seuss by many years, but that genius managed to create something a little different with it, presenting a character who doesn't just remember, whether it be his word or his task, but who is faithful to that word and that task. Someone with a strong sense of honor, and a protective and nurturing attitude to those weaker and more vulnerable than he. In short: the archetype of a great dad! It's interesting to speculate that there might be some message here, not just about keeping one's promises, but about the nature of parenting. Maizie may be the egg's biological parent, but it is Horton who is the adoptive one, doing all of the work of the parent. In real life, adoptive children don't assume the biological qualities of their adoptive parents - nature doesn't really work that way - but Seuss seems to be arguing that they should. Perhaps he is even arguing that they do, if not in body, then in spirit. As I mentioned above, there is a magical quality to this tale, but it is not the magic of fairy-tales or fantasy. It is the magic of justice, something rare enough indeed in the world to be like enchantment, when it finally comes. It should be this way, the narrative tells us, and it would be, the implication seems to be, if the world were a just place... Just a wonderful, wonderful tale, both well-crafted and well-told, Horton Hatches the Egg is also beautifully and expressively illustrated, in Dr. Seuss' own inimitable cartoon style. One really gets the sense of Horton's emotional ups and downs from the artwork here! I could go on and on, but as my (very rare) five-star rating must make plain: I think that this is a marvelous picture-book, and it is one I would recommend to all readers of that form. I would also recommend it to picture-book readers looking for stories about keeping one's word, and taking care of those in need. ...more |
Notes are private!
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Mar 17, 2021
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Mar 17, 2021
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Mar 17, 2021
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Hardcover
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| 0394900820
| 9780394900827
| 0394900820
| 3.93
| 2,222
| 1939
| unknown
|
really liked it
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King Birtram of Binn got more work done by seven o'clock in the morning than most rulers got done in a month. He worked hard keeping his kingdom safe
King Birtram of Binn got more work done by seven o'clock in the morning than most rulers got done in a month. He worked hard keeping his kingdom safe from the ever-threatening sea, caring for the Patrol Cats who battled the Nizzards - birds who continually ate away at the roots of the Dike Trees protecting the land. But as hard as the king worked, he played just as hard, flashing about on his bright red stilts every day at five in the evening. No one begrudged him his amusement, save for sour Lord Droon, who conspired to hide the king's stilts, and to keep the king's pageboy, Eric, from disclosing this piece of villainy. Unable to play, the king stopped working as well, the cats stopped patrolling, and the Dike Trees became ever weaker. Eric knew he had to do something, or the Kingdom of Binn would soon disappear beneath the waves... Originally published in 1939, The King's Stilts was Dr. Seuss' third picture-book, following upon And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937) and The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1938). Although it was never one of my favorites, when it comes to Dr. Seuss' many books, I do recall reading and enjoying it, when a girl, and have a vivid memory of the image of the king on his stilts. I picked it up for this reread as part of a Seuss retrospective I have recently undertaken, as an act of personal protest against the suppression of six of the author/artist's titles - And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , McElligot's Pool , If I Ran the Zoo , Scrambled Eggs Super! , On Beyond Zebra! and The Cat's Quizzer - by Dr. Seuss Enterprises. See my review of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , to be found HERE, for a fuller exploration of my thoughts on that matter. In any case, I found this an entertaining and thought-provoking original fairy-tale, and appreciated both the story and the artwork. Unlike many of Dr. Seuss' books aimed at younger children, or written later in his career, The King's Stilts presents its story in prose. I have seen it described as an exploration of balance - the need for both hard work and hard play, in a fulfilled life - and I think that makes sense. After all, King Birtram is described as the most productive of royals, until his pleasure is taken away, and he sinks into a depression, suggesting that without the release provided by his chosen leisure activity, his work performance will suffer. This seems a commonly accepted idea today, but I'm not sure how widespread it was in 1939. It occurs to me that the story could also be read as an exploration of the idea of convention and respectability politics, as Lord Droon's actions are driven by what he thinks is proper for a king to do - something that does not involve dashing about on stilts - and by his sense of embarrassment at what he perceives as a silly activity. However one interprets the story, it is engaging, offering an entertaining and suspenseful tale with plenty of fairy-tale elements - the royal kingdom, the threat from non-human forces, the magical animals - and a satisfactorily happy ending. The accompanying artwork is done in black and white, with the occasional red accent, and captures the absurd humor of the whole tale. The depiction of the both the cats and the Nizzards recalled other creatures of the kind, in subsequent Seuss books, and was very appealing, in that rather snarky, humorous Seussian way. In sum: an appealing, entertaining and satisfying fairy-tale from Seuss, well worth the time of any picture-book reader with a taste for such stories. It's a little text-heavy, so I'd advise its use with slightly older audiences, perhaps six and above. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 16, 2021
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Mar 16, 2021
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Mar 16, 2021
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Library Binding
| ||||||||||||||
| 0394944844
| 9780394944845
| 0394944844
| 4.02
| 15,574
| Sep 01, 1938
| Mar 17, 1990
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really liked it
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Heading into town one day, the humble Bartholomew Cubbins whips his hat off his head when King Derwin passes in his carriage, only to find that a new
Heading into town one day, the humble Bartholomew Cubbins whips his hat off his head when King Derwin passes in his carriage, only to find that a new one - an exact duplicate - has taken its place. The irate king, prouder than he is wise, stops the procession to demand that Bartholomew show the proper respect, and that young boy, almost petrified with fright, rushes to comply. Unfortunately, no matter how many times he removes his hat, he always finds it instantly replaced. Hauled off to the castle, he is confronted by the king and his courtiers in the throne room, and an investigation is launched. But no one, from the hat maker to the wise men, the magicians to the executioner, can solve the problem. Eventually, the king's spoiled rotten nephew, the Grand Duke Wilfred, suggests chucking Bartholomew off the tower, a fate that is only avoided when the final, 500th hat to appear is so dazzlingly ornate, that the king decides he must have it for himself... The first of two picture-books featuring that engaging young hero, Bartholomew Cubbins - the second was Bartholomew and the Oobleck , a Caldecott Honor Book in 1950 - The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins was originally published in 1938, the year after Dr. Seuss's picture-book debut, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , and is his second contribution to the form. Although I definitely read the second book about Bartholomew as a girl, this one is not a title I recall from my own childhood. I picked it up as part of a Dr. Seuss retrospective I have undertaken, as an act of personal protest against the suppression of six of the author/artist's titles - And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , McElligot's Pool , If I Ran the Zoo , Scrambled Eggs Super! , On Beyond Zebra! and The Cat's Quizzer - in recent days. See my review of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , to be found HERE, for a fuller exploration of my thoughts on that matter. This title has thankfully not (yet!) been deemed controversial. Leaving that aside, I enjoyed The 500 Hat of Bartholomew Cubbins immensely, appreciating its tongue-in-cheek fairy-tale feeling, and its immensely expressive artwork. Parts of the story, particularly the episode in which both the Grand Duke Wilfred and Yeoman the Bowman attempt to shoot the hats from Bartholomew's head, reminded me of traditional lore. Specifically, the famous episode from the William Tell story. Other elements - the five hundred hats, the hapless court attendants, the executioner's refusal to behead Bartholomew, because it must be done when the prisoner is hatless - struck me as vintage Seuss, with that oddball sense of humor, and that matter-of-factly magical quality I have come to associate with his work. The illustrations here are done in black and white, with Bartholomew's red hat providing the only color on the page. This choice emphasizes how central the hat is to the story, as its outrageous and unusual reproduction of itself causes such chaos for both its owner and the rather silly king. Royalty definitely doesn't come off looking well here - King Derwin seems self-important, rather stupid, easily led, and swayed by both vanity and greed - making me wonder whether this was common in Seuss' books, or not. I'll be keeping an eye on that, going forward in this reading project. This is one I would recommend to picture-book readers who enjoy fairy-tale type stories, although it's a little text-heavy, so it's definitely not for the very young. Perhaps five and up? ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 13, 2021
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Mar 13, 2021
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Mar 13, 2021
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Library Binding
| ||||||||||||||
| 0394944941
| 9780394944944
| 0394944941
| 3.99
| 25,139
| Dec 21, 1937
| Oct 14, 1989
|
really liked it
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Given the recent decision by Dr. Seuss Enterprises to cease publication on six Dr. Seuss picture-books that are now thought to contain outdated and of
Given the recent decision by Dr. Seuss Enterprises to cease publication on six Dr. Seuss picture-books that are now thought to contain outdated and offensive elements, I have been considering undertaking a Seuss retrospective as an act of personal protest against what I hold to be an absurd and ill-judged action. My initial thought had been to simply read and review the six books singled out for suppression - And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,
McElligot's Pool
,
If I Ran the Zoo
,
Scrambled Eggs Super!
,
On Beyond Zebra!
and
The Cat's Quizzer
- but then I thought: why not do a retrospective of all forty-four of Dr. Seuss's classic picture-books instead, reading and reviewing them chronologically, by publication date? That is what I have elected to do, and appropriately enough, given that it is one of the infamous six, I started with And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. Originally published in 1937, this was the first of Dr. Seuss's picture-books, and follows young Marco as he walks down a Mulberry Street both real and imagined. Instructed by his father to keep his eyes open, but also rebuked for telling fanciful tales of what he has seen, Marco at first registers "reality," in the form of a fairly tame horse and wagon ambling down the street. Concluding that this makes for a very poor story indeed, Marco begins to embroider upon what he sees, imagining a zebra pulling the cart instead of a horse, and then pretending that it is a chariot being drawn, rather than a cart. His game of make-believe grows ever wilder, as he imagines all sorts of extraordinary embellishments, until he finally ends up with a massive brass band being pulled by a rajah-bearing elephant and two (seeming) giraffes, followed along by an old man in his trailer house, and accompanied by a police escort. This extraordinary equipage dashes past a parade stand featuring the mayor, and is feted by a confetti-dumping airplane. Despite this marvelous feat of fantasy, when Marco returns home again and faces his father, he reverts to "reality," reporting only upon the horse and cart... Although I would not describe it as the equal of some of Seuss's later hits, like The Lorax or How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (not to mention my own personal favorite, I Had Trouble In Getting To Solla Sollew ), And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street is an astoundingly good picture-book, especially when one considers that it was its creator's debut in the form. The text hasn't quite got that rollicking rhyme I associate with Dr. Seuss, but it reads well, and it tells an engaging story. This is a story, in fact, to get the reader thinking. Marco is clearly an imaginative, creative youngster, one who can transform the ordinary, workaday world into a place of magic, of outlandish and entertaining wonder. Does he represent Seuss (Thedor Geisel), who must surely have had those same abilities, to create the work he did? Is Seuss giving us a peek into his creative process, whereby a humdrum horse-drawn wagon becomes an extravaganza of delight? Perhaps Marco is meant to represent, not Seuss, but the artistic process itself, in which storyteller and draftsman construct something from nothing? Or does Marco represent the child (any child), alive to the wonder and potential of the world, but stifled by adults who just don't understand, and can't enter into the child's-eye view of what is around them? It could be any of them, or all; it could be one at first reading, and another at the second - the reader decides, and that is as it should be. Just as the story here is full of enchantment, so too is the artwork, starting out on a white page with some introductory text and one illustrative element, in the form of Marco himself. The blue of his shorts and the red of his jacket, socks and book provide the only color. The next two-page spread features the aforementioned horse and wagon, with yellow and green being added to the mix. The artwork grows ever more zany and colorful, and it grows larger as well, moving from a small element of one page, to dominate entire two-page spreads. This swelling of visual grandeur mirrors the growing grandiosity of Marco's make-believe description of what he saw on Mulberry Street, with text and image working smoothly together to build to a storytelling crescendo. This quality - the complementary working of text and artwork to tell a story - is the hallmark of a truly excellent picture-book, and there is no question that And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street has it in spades. A truly remarkable achievement, for a first picture-book! In reading the commentary and debate surrounding the suppression of this and the other five 'objectionable' Seuss books online, I have encountered a number of falsehoods, but none stands out more to me, now that I have read this book, than the claim that the titles in question have little artistic or literary merit, and that it would be no great loss if they disappeared. As the foregoing analysis of story and artwork should make plain, this is simply not true. There is certainly great merit in this particular book - as for the others, I will judge them as I get to them. In any case, as someone who either never read 'Mulberry Street' as a girl, or who doesn't recall reading it, I approached my reading with fresh eyes, unswayed by nostalgia or childhood loyalty, and I found it to have many excellent qualities. That does not mean, of course, that the book is without flaws, and here we get to the substance of the charges against it. There are three elements that I perceive as being potentially offensive: the appearance of two figures who might be read as eskimos (AKA Inuit); the appearance of an Indian rajah astride the elephant; and the appearance of a Chinese man, depicted in a stereotypical way and described as eating "with sticks." It is not my place to tell other readers what they should or should not find offensive and/or hurtful in the books they encounter, just as it is not their place to tell me. My own interpretation of these images and one brief bit of text, is that they could be read as racially and culturally insensitive, but don't seem to have the animus required to justify the charge of racism. Of course, this is a highly debatable point, as the current discourse around racism is being driven by those who deny that animus is necessary for it to exist. That is a philosophical question well beyond the scope of this review - suffice it to say that I do not subscribe to this revisionist (and thoroughly harmful) definition of what racism is. In any case, I do have some specific thoughts about the three images/story elements in question. First, the depiction of the purported Eskimos (Inuits) was very ambiguous. I may be alone in this (it's entirely possible), but the image of two fur-clad individuals riding a sleigh pulled by reindeer suggested to me, not the indigenous people of North America's arctic, but the indigenous people of Europe's arctic. The figures are never identified in the text as Eskimo - they're not identified at all - and my own understanding is that the Inuit use dogs to pull their sleds, and hunt reindeer, known here in the western hemisphere as caribou. It is people like the Saami, in far northern Scandinavia, who use domesticated reindeer as draft animals. While it's possible that I am wrong, and that the Inuit have used caribou/reindeer in this way, this is the impression I have always had. Do I think Seuss was thinking of the Saami when he created his tale? Highly unlikely. He was most likely referencing the Inuit (so-called Eskimos) in his own mind, but the question of what readers take away from the image is far more complex. Even if both Seuss and the theoretical reader think "Eskimo," it isn't clear to me, looking at the image, what is objectionable about it, unless the implication is that there is something inherently derogatory about their inclusion in a young boy's wacky fantasy in the first place. If that is the case, then I'm still none the wiser, as plenty of non-Eskimos are also included in Marco's imaginary parade. Perhaps it is the pairing of (purported) Eskimos with reindeer, for precisely the reason stated above - that they don't use these animals in this way, and that the pairing is therefore misleading, conflating very different cultures, and relying upon a stereotypical vision of what Arctic people do - that makes it offensive to some? My feelings regarding the depiction of the rajah are similar, although I think there is possibly more historical precedent for this image, than the one showing the Eskimos being pulled by reindeer. After all, there are quite a few historical paintings from India (as well as more recent photographs) showing just such a scene. There are even more such images where the rider is not a rajah. Wherein lies the offense? That rajahs aren't common occurrences, even in India, and that western storytelling is awash with a few too many of them, always treated as exotic curiosities? Perhaps so, but it bears recalling that Marco is spinning a fairy-tale, imagining the most unusual things that he can, not the most common or ordinary. Could the use of this elephant-riding rajah figure be considered rather tiresome? Yes, I suppose, but no more so, it seems to me, than the good old Irish-American as policeman figure, also on view. I probably missed all of the public outcry about Sergeant Mulvaney leading the police escort in the story, and how this reflects an overreliance on this type in the books and films of early 20th-century America. Of course, much like the elephant-riding rajah, the type has historical precedent - many Irish-Americans did enter the police force, as it was one of the few areas of employment where they didn't face discrimination - but that doesn't make its overuse feel less formulaic. My purpose here is not to defend the use of stereotype, but to demonstrate that it is clearly not stereotype itself that seems to be driving much of the outrage. It is with the image and description of the Chinese man that I think critics of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street have their strongest argument. Apparently in the original edition this figure had bright yellow skin and a pigtail, and was described as a "Chinaman." Seuss himself changed these elements, when readers complained to him - he took out the yellow coloring and pigtail, and changed the text to "Chinese man" - which seems to indicate that his intention was not to deliberately offend or dehumanize. Despite this, many still feel that the way in which the figure is drawn and described - the slanting eyes, the fact that he eats with sticks - is problematic. It definitely strikes me as a caricature of an Asian person, and I can understand why it would make people feel uncomfortable. For my own part, I find the image more unfortunate than the text, as it doesn't seem especially offensive to say that Chinese people eat with sticks. Chopsticks might be more accurate, I suppose, but the idea is essentially the same, and the image clarifies what "sticks" means. I suppose there's something a little random, in having a chopstick-holding Chinese man watching the parade - why is he there in the first place? - but given that this is a fantasy sequence, it doesn't feel that obtrusive. The hyper-rational part of me wonders whether this depiction is any more of a caricature of an Asian person, than some of the other depictions are caricatures of European ones, but I accept that the former exists within a framework of stereotypical images that the latter weren't subjected to. All of which is to say, while I can understand why some might not see the image as offensive, I can also see why some would. In sum: I think that And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street is a wonderful picture-book, when judged from an artistic and literary perspective. It provides an entertaining and thought-provoking story and delightfully amusing artwork, and it displays excellent text-image interaction. It does have some elements that might be considered dated or offensive, which is hardly surprising, in a book from 1937. While I might not agree with every criticism of it, I can certainly understand why some people would feel uncomfortable promoting it. I have absolutely no argument with readers and critics subjecting it to every kind of critique possible - that's what we should all be doing, as readers! - and I wouldn't object to parents, teachers, librarians, and storytellers choosing not to share it with the young children in their charge, if they feel it is harmful. Where I part company with this book's critics, and with those behind this move at Dr. Seuss Enterprises, is over the idea that, because they themselves find the book objectionable, it should therefore not be published, preventing others from easily accessing it. One need only listen to the discourse about harm - the harm the book potentially causes readers - to understand that this is the explicit aim: to slowly disappear these books from the reading world. I have no patience whatsoever with the sophism of those claiming that the suppression of these Seuss titles is not a censorious act, and no sympathy whatsoever with our lamentable chattering class, as they put themselves through mental contortions to demonstrate that this really, really isn't book banning, that Seuss is absolutely not being cancelled, and that the only people objecting are racist far-right trolls intent on scoring political points. Let me set the record straight. This book may not have been censored by any government entity, nor outright banned by any institution, but the final effect of this decision to self-censor will be the same as if it had. Publication will stop, the book will become scarce, libraries will begin removing copies from their shelves - this has already begun at some libraries - and the books will become less and less accessible, even to those who want to read them. It strikes me that the harm caused by this - authors' estates and publishers pulling their own books, libraries cooperating to purge objectionable material - will be far greater than anything these Seuss books could inflict. Truly, a sad moment for the children's literature world, and for the world of letters in general. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 10, 2021
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Mar 10, 2021
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Mar 10, 2021
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Library Binding
| ||||||||||||||
| 0679889108
| 9780679889106
| 0679889108
| 4.35
| 350,363
| 1971
| Jan 01, 1998
|
it was amazing
|
The work of Dr. Seuss has been such a formative influence in my reading life, playing such an important role, not just in my childhood reading, but in
The work of Dr. Seuss has been such a formative influence in my reading life, playing such an important role, not just in my childhood reading, but in the process whereby I learned to read in the first place, that I find it very difficult to subject it to analysis. I must have read every single one of his picture-books countless times as a child (with the notable exception of
The Seven Lady Godivas: The True Facts Concerning History's Barest Family
, which I only discovered as an adult), but although I have reviewed many books online, this is my first Seuss listing - my first attempt to grapple with the enormous appeal and influence of this brilliant poet and artist. I will say that I was struck, during my latest reread - courtesy of our April theme for the Picture Book Club I belong to - by how effortless it all seems. How easy Seuss makes it look! Just read it, and see how it rolls off the tongue: "Way back in the days when the grass was still green and the pond was still wet and the clouds were still clean, and the songs of the Swomme-Swans rang out in space... one morning, I came to this glorious place. And I first saw the trees! The Truffula Trees! The bright-colored tufts of the Truffula Trees! Mile after mile in the fresh morning breeze." This is a narrative that just begs to be read aloud! Its rhythm is simply perfect, with its flawless balance and its building excitement. Its vocabulary - the Once-ler's "gruvvulous glove," and "Whisper-ma-Phone," the Lorax's "cruffulous croak," due to the "smogulous smoke" - is humorous, inventive, and somehow, completely real. The artwork is pure genius - comical, simple, yet immensely evocative, brightly-colored, save when it isn't. In a word: Seuss! And somehow, it all comes together - the rolling narrative, the clever word-play, the eye-grabbing illustrations - in a book that feels natural. Simple. Effortless. The fact that Dr. Seuss can convince me, every time I read his books, that it is effortless, when I know it isn't, when I know that it takes immense skill and hard work, is proof of his genius! That The Lorax, a cautionary tale which warns of the danger of abusing our precious natural resources and environment, is as topical today as when it was first penned, is a testament, not just to the continuing relevance of the issue, but to the fact that Seuss is, bar none, the best picture-book author/artist of all time. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 1980
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Jan 1980
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Mar 01, 2020
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Hardcover
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| 0826414346
| 9780826414342
| 0826414346
| 4.08
| 78
| Dec 01, 2003
| Jan 01, 2004
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None
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Notes are private!
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0
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not set
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not set
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Oct 06, 2019
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Hardcover
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| 030680736X
| 9780306807367
| 030680736X
| 4.13
| 1,348
| 1995
| Aug 01, 1996
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None
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Notes are private!
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0
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not set
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not set
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Sep 29, 2019
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Paperback
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| 0375822984
| 9780375822988
| 0375822984
| 4.18
| 656
| 2001
| Jan 01, 2004
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None
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Notes are private!
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0
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not set
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not set
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Aug 10, 2019
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Hardcover
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| 1442203110
| 9781442203112
| 1442203110
| 4.16
| 419
| Jul 16, 2011
| Jun 17, 2011
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None
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Notes are private!
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0
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not set
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not set
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Jul 14, 2019
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Paperback
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my rating |
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| 3.91
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really liked it
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May 29, 2021
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May 29, 2021
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| 4.15
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really liked it
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Apr 21, 2021
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Apr 21, 2021
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| 4.19
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really liked it
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Apr 13, 2021
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Apr 15, 2021
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| 3.93
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really liked it
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Apr 06, 2021
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Apr 07, 2021
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| 4.02
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really liked it
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Mar 29, 2021
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Mar 29, 2021
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| 4.21
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really liked it
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Mar 27, 2021
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Mar 28, 2021
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| 3.77
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liked it
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Mar 25, 2021
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Mar 26, 2021
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| 3.83
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it was ok
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Mar 24, 2021
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Mar 24, 2021
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| 4.05
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really liked it
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Mar 23, 2021
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Mar 23, 2021
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| 4.05
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really liked it
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Mar 21, 2021
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Mar 21, 2021
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| 4.06
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really liked it
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Mar 19, 2021
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Mar 19, 2021
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| 4.19
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it was amazing
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Mar 17, 2021
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Mar 17, 2021
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| 3.93
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really liked it
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Mar 16, 2021
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Mar 16, 2021
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| 4.02
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really liked it
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Mar 13, 2021
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Mar 13, 2021
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| 3.99
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really liked it
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Mar 10, 2021
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Mar 10, 2021
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| 4.35
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it was amazing
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Jan 1980
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Mar 01, 2020
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| 4.08
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not set
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Oct 06, 2019
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| 4.13
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not set
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Sep 29, 2019
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| 4.18
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not set
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Aug 10, 2019
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| 4.16
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not set
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Jul 14, 2019
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