Your Favorite Seuss

This, somewhat obviously, is related to Age-appropriate Reading. I was actually going to write a serious post today about hyphens and their difficulties, but I don’t feel like it. I would much rather run and do something fun! And what could be more fun than Dr. Seuss?

Your Favorite Seuss is a collection of thirteen Seuss stories, compiled by Janet Schulman and Cathy Goldsmith. Just reading the table of contents makes me giddy: If I Ran the Zoo, The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, The Sneetches, The Lorax… These are the books that first made me love reading. I believe Green Eggs and Ham was instrumental in turning me into a word nerd (“I do not like them, Sam-I-am” —a phrase that is still useful!).

Dr. Seuss taught us that words do not have to be serious things. You can take them out and play with them, and sometimes you can even make up new ones. You can let words roll around on your tongue and then you can say them in a silly voice. You can take them apart and put them back together in new and interesting ways. And when you’re done doing all that, you can take them and make them into a hat!

No, seriously—if by playing with words you learn to love them and learn what they’re all about, you will be better able to use those words to say what needs saying. Because words aren’t just for playing; they’re also (and mostly) for communicating our very important thoughts. Something Dr. Seuss never ever forgot.