photo by susansimon www.flickr.com
Today’s Timeless Thursday book is a classic for sure–Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat. This book is loved by many–children and adults and even movie producers. 
Originally published in 1957, The Cat in the Hat was written when William Spaulding, the textbook publisher at Houghton Mifflin, commissioned Seuss to write a book that would get kids reading. And he had to follow one stipulation–they sent Dr. Seuss a 400 word list, and he could only use 225 of those words to write his book. Well, looks like he did a pretty darn good job with that stipulation. Oh, the creativity!
It took Seuss nine months to write this book, (I am getting all this information from a wonderful book titled: Your Favorite Seuss: A baker’s dozen by the one and only Dr. Seuss) and he actually only used 223 words. Go on, go to your child’s bookshelf or to the school library and count–it’s true–you’ll find 223 different vocabulary words.
Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat, has a great message that you can discuss with children, especially children who tend to get bored easily. Be careful what you do when you are bored–as you don’t want to get into trouble or cause trouble. And it is very important to learn to say NO! especially when parents are not home. But of course, Dr. Seuss teaches these lessons in such a fun way that children don’t even know they are learning.
The end is just priceless and can lead even the youngest children in a discussion about right and wrong. The cat in the hat has cleaned everything up, and so their mother would never know what happened while she was gone. Should Sally and her brother tell her? As Dr. Seuss says in his last line: “What would YOU do if your mother asked YOU?”
So, hats off to Dr. Seuss and the cat. And even though, this book started as a limited assignment for Seuss–he worked his magic and turned this story into something that I’m sure will be around for many, many more generations.