*Picture book for preschool through adult
*The THINKS you can THINK as main characters
*Rating: My one-year-old daughter carries Oh, the Thinks You Can Think! around with her and looks at this book all the time. I’m sure it’s the pictures, but I’d love to think it’s the whole concept that she gets. 
Short, short summary:
Every now and again, I like to blog about a Dr. Seuss book. I know kids love to read them still and I know many teachers/home school parents/librarians who use them with kids. In this one, Dr. Seuss is celebrating all the excellent ideas our brains can come up with. He is writing about how wonderful imagination is and the sense of wonder that some kids have. Dr. Seuss does it in his special way with made-up creatures and silly rhymes, but that’s what makes this book even more special–it has that Dr. Seuss charm. Example:
You can think about red. You can think about pink. You can think up a horse. Oh, the thinks you can think!
So, what do I do with this book?
1. Ask students, “What are the THINKS you can THINK?” Ask them to make a list or draw a picture showing some things they are thinking about. They can be real (like soccer practice or a way to fix a problem with a friend) or make-believe (a new creature that people can have as a pet).
2. Read and discuss each page of the book during a second read through. What does it mean “you can think up a horse”? Why does Seuss want you to “think and wonder”? And so on. With students and children, you want to really talk up creativity and imagination!
3. It’s fun to discuss Dr. Seuss’s word choice and his made-up creatures. You can tie the word choice to a 6 + 1 traits lesson on word choice and discuss why the word choice works in this book (or maybe some students think it doesn’t). You can also discuss what some of the words mean such as: Da-Dake, Schlopp, and Guff.
photo by mape_s www.flickr.com
Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!
*Picture book for preschoolers through second graders, fantasy
*Young boy as main character
*Rating: Dr. Seuss is at his best in If I Ran the Zoo–from made-up creatures to fantastical places to those ever-clever rhymes.
Short, short summary: Gerald McGrew says that his local zoo is a “pretty good zoo.” But it just has the normal, old animals that all zoos have. So, if Gerald ran it. . .he would do things a little differently. For example, he would travel up past the North Pole in his Skeegle-mobile and bring back a family of “What-do-you-know!” He would hunt in the mountains of Zomba-ma-Tant and even brave the blistering sands of the Desert of Zind. People from all over, of course, will want to see these amazing animals at the McGrew Zoo. And as he points out at the end, Gerald would just make a few changes to the zoo. (BTW, did you know that Dr. Seuss’s father actually ran a zoo in Springfield, Massachusetts for thirty years? Write what you know, everyone. 
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So, what do I do with this book?
1. If I Ran the Zoo is full of Dr. Seuss’s wonderful illustrations. You can do two activities with illustrations. You can read the descriptions of a creature to your students and ask them to draw what they imagine. You can also ask them to create an animal for McGrew’s Zoo, name it, and even write a description–depending on their age and ability levels.
2. Students can write their own versions of If I Ran the Zoo by writing about what they would do with a zoo, or they can also change the place: If I Ran the School or If I Ran a Pizza Parlor. If you have young students, you can do this as a shared writing activity with the repeating sentence: “If I ran the zoo, I would have a ____________________.” If you have older students, they can create their stories themselves.
3. Some of the places such as the North Pole, Africa, and North Dakota are real (of course). Other places, it is clear that Dr. Seuss made them up. Ask your students to give you a thumbs-up if the place you are reading about is a real place (with made-up creatures) or a made-up place. You can also make a list of both on chart paper in a T-table. This can also lead to a discussion of what makes If I Ran the Zoo a fantasy even though parts of it are real.
