Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Favorite Dr. Seuss Book

It's favorites day!
Hip hip hooray!
These are our favorite
Dr. Seuss books.
Tell us about yours
After you take a look!

I loved The Foot Book when I was a kid. I also loved One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. I liked the rhythm, the repetition, the idea of taking lots of different approaches to the same topic. There are feet of different sizes, shapes, colors, from different animals, in different styles of shoes or socks or other clothing items... It's like reading a list, but more fun. And I really like lists.

I like that it isn't narrative; it's just an exploration of a theme. It's like playing a sandbox video game as opposed to a platform game. It's a great way to present information to a kid. Have you ever handed a kid a book before they can read very well? They tend to flip the book open to any page at all, instead of strictly starting at the beginning. With a book like this, they can do that and actually read a page independently of the rest of the book without being discouraged by having no clue what's going on at that point of the story. It's just a page about animal feet, or types of shoes. No stress.


I didn't really read a lot of Dr. Seuss as a kid.  I mean, I'm sure my mom read them to me, none of them really stick out in my mind.  So I'm choosing my favorite based on my adult tastes.

Fox in Socks is just a fun book.  It's a crazy tongue twister book, which makes it fun as a grown up too because my tongue gets just as tied as a kid's does.

The book even comes with a warning: 


How many books (children's books especially) that tell you the book is dangerous?

Like Alex's favorite pick, you could open it up anywhere and it would be fun to say all the tongue twisters and see all the pictures.  Easy, peasy, fun.

3 comments:

  1. I read all of his books as a kid, and I don't recall a favorite, although I have specific memories of Fox In Sox being read to me. My sister's favorite was clearly Green Eggs and Ham. I remember reading it to her, or listening to it being read to her, a lot.

    As an adult, my favorite is actually one that he wrote in 1973 but was published by Dr. Seuss' company well after his death. Its called My Many Colored Days. It associates colors with feelings, which I think is really helpful when asking a young child to identify feelings. Preschoolers have a hard time with feelings other than mad, sad, and happy, and this book can help them communicate better with adults and thus, it will help adults teach better ways to react to certain situations. I also think it would be great for a special needs child (specifically on the ASD spectrum) that has trouble identifying feelings and emotions, but can understand the concreteness of a certain color means a certain thing.

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    Replies
    1. Sometimes the way you think of things just blows my mind, Anna.

      I would never think to use color to help kids associate with feelings. That's really is a fantastic idea.

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    2. Thanks! I actually read it to my pre-schoolers when I was a behavior specialist. Part of my job was helping them identify feelings like "frustrated" etc. I thought that book was really helpful.

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