dr seuss cat in the hat article


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Dr. Seuss and the Cat in the Hat Story

Dr Seuss was born Theodor Seuss Geisel in March 1904 in Massachusetts, America. Geisel never earned a Ph.D rather he simply took the title 'Dr' in acknowledgement of his family's unfulfilled hopes of him earning a doctorate in literature during his time at Oxford University. Whilst at Oxford he wed and Theodor and Helen Geisel return to America later the same year, 1927. On his return to the States he began to develop his career through humorous articles and cartoons to various magazine titles.

It is on his return from a vacation in Europe that Geisel gets the idea for the poem 'And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street' whilst listening to the beat of the ships engines. This poem was to become his first book but was repeatedly rejected by publishers and was only printed when a friend stepped in to help.

The war years saw Dr Seuss turn his attention back to political cartoons producing over 400 in a two year period. Geisel joined the army and was sent to Hollywood where he wrote a number of propaganda films winning an Academy Award for best Documentary in 1947 for the film Design for Death. Away from military propaganda his short animated movie 'Gerald McBoing-Boing' also won him an Oscar.

His most popular works evolved principally from an article which appeared in Life magazine in May 1954. The article was a report on literacy standards of school children and identified that the low levels of literacy attainment was primarily as a direct result of their books being boring.

Spurred by the article, Geisel's publisher created a list of 400 words which he forwarded to Geisel with the challenge to reduce the list to 250 and then create a work that would retain the interest of the reader. Despite disliking the fact that the lists were based on the sight vocabulary learning method commonly used in schools and not supported by DR Seuss; nearly a year later, Dr Seuss completed The Cat in the Hat, a masterpiece that used on 223 of the words provided yet displayed the imaginative prowess of his earlier works. The book became an instant success due in large part to it's simplified vocabulary and Geisel's simple drawing style.

The Cat in the Hat story is about two children and their talking goldfish who are left alone in the house when their parents go out. It is raining so they are left inside with nothing to do then enter The Cat in the Hat with Thing One and Thing Two and whilst attempting to amuse and cheer the children up all manner of chaos results.

This is the first appearance of the Cat in the Hat character who appeared again in four further books: The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, The Cat in the Hat Song Book, The Cat's Quizzer, and I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!.

The Cat in the Hat books are treasured children's stories that have retained their popularity for more than five decades. This popularity has been boosted further by the release of a major motion picture in 2003 which starred Mike Myers cast in the title character and the adoption of the Dr Seuss characters and settings by Universal Studios in its Orlando amusement park. The movie of the Cat in the Hat followed the 2000 release of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which starred Jim Carey as The Grinch.

Due to its unending popularity, and the large amount of material available The Cat in the Hat and the other Dr Seuss characters are great choices for the theme of a children's party.