`The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house/All that cold, cold, wet day . . . ” How could you not want to read ahead, to the sublime moment that the mischievous Cat in the Hat appears, and promises “I know it is wet/And the sun is not sunny. But we can have/Lots of good fun that is funny!”
Thus begins one of the great classics. Note we didn’t say children’s classics. We didn’t say that because “The Cat in the Hat” is a classic, period.
If you’re tempted to judge the book by the recent movie–with its surfeit of potty jokes and sexual references–we have one word: don’t.
For those who have forgotten–maybe your kids are all grown and you’re still waiting impatiently for grandkids–allow us to refresh your memory. The Cat and other Dr. Seuss classics were some of the first children’s primers that adults could enjoy just as well, perhaps even more, than their kids. They dazzled with infectious rhyme, exuberantly inventive language, and giddily anarchic plots.
Deftly hidden within these antic, color-splashed masterpieces are some serious messages. “The Lorax,” for instance, is about saving the environment. “The Butter Battle Book” is about the folly of the arms race, which pits the Yooks, who eat their bread butter side up, against the Zooks, who eat their bread butter side down.
There’s much wise and gentle advice about how to live life in many Seuss classics. For instance, there’s a boy who thinks he hates green eggs and ham only to find, upon trying it, that he really doesn’t. “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” is a wonderful primer on how to persist in the face of fear, loneliness and confusion.
Theodore Seuss Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, changed the way children read. He made it fun. He invented words, gave flight to fantasy and didn’t insult the intelligence or curiosity of children.
The Cat who dramatically barges into the lives of two little children while their mother is away for the day was Seuss’s breakthrough character. With only the goldfish to warn them of impending doom, the children watch aghast as the cat proceeds to wreak havoc on the household with his tricks.
In the end, of course, the cat saves the day, cleaning the house just before Mother returns. When she asks the kids “Did you have any fun? Tell me. What did you do?” the narrator and his sister Sally are speechless. “Should we tell her about it? Now, what should we do? Well . . . What would you do/If your mother asked you?”
It’s a question that has launched many a parent-child conversation. May it always be so.
