I had fun today with my library classes. We worked out how old Dr Seuss would be today? "Is he still alive?" I asked. "Of course," said one Year 1 boy emphatically. "Of course not," said another. "How do you know?" I asked each of them. "Dr Seuss will live forever," said the boy who was sure he was alive. Whether he is or is not alive physically, and he isn't, the first boy is right. He will live forever because his books are still as popular as ever nineteen years after his death and over fifty years since some of them were published. I wonder if Spaulding, the publisher at Houghton Mifflin got what he expected when he gave Theodor Seuss Geisel the list of 300 or so commonly used words to make into a book suitable for Year 1 readers. The Cat in the Hat came back using only 236 of the words and it was a huge success and the beginning of a large number of books that many children have learned to read with.
I went to Springfield last year on my way back from the Eric Carle Museum to Boston because I had to change buses there. I wish I knew then that the Seuss Memorial Sculpture Garden was there. What a shame I missed it because the bronze sculptures look as exciting as Boston's ducks, hare and tortoise and New York's Alice in Wonderland.
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