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As for the rest of this delightful collection, Horton Hears a Who! is a tale that teaches us "a person's a person, no matter how small." And of course, you may remember the Star-Belly Sneetches, the "snooty old smarties" who pranced antagonistically in front of the Plain-Belly Sneetches, or Mrs. McCave who had 23 sons and named them all Dave. Finally, Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book is about the snortiest snorers, the curious sleepwalking Crandalls, World-Champion Sleep-Talkers, and other somnambulant types--a perfect bedtime finale to a book that could keep youngsters entertained all night. (All ages)
Everyone loves Dr. Seuss! A true original, he wrote and illustrated over 50
classic children's books with total sales of more than 100 million copies. For
children of all ages.
That said, the book itself has a flaw common to books of this type. It is not durable enough for extended use by children. Because it contains multiple stories, it will see more use than a single storied book. Books of this size and length need the strongest bindings and reinforcing possible. A "Curious George" compendium that we own that is made similarly to the Seuss book fell apart after a few readthroughs, and only the adults handled it. The spine of the Seuss book is weakening after only a year of ownership. Manufacturers need to offer us better quality.
I also must say it is disappointing that no complete collection of Suess's material exists. His entire works would be quite large, but it is still odd that no one has seen fit to put everything he wrote for children in a multi-volume set. The best we have at this time is the five selection book here.
There are lot's of imitators these days, but they're not Seuss. No one could draw a Sneetch, Grinch or Who like Seuss could. Heck, nobody knew what a Sneetch was until Seuss showed us. His creatures and creations were so real at times, yet so completely unlike anything we had ever seen before how could we not be amazed. Like Gerald McGrew from "If I Ran the Zoo" Seuss offered us a menagerie of creatures so wondrous and amazing that they could actually make our own world seem dim in comparison.
While it's hard to have a "best of" compilation when speaking of Seuss, Random House has done it's best to compile five classics into a tome equal to Bullfinch's Mythology, Aesop's Fables or Grimm's Fairy Tales (the book I ordered along with this one). Each of these stories teaches us something without coming off as pretentious or preachy. In fact, the moral's are sometimes so subtle as to be invisible, but they're there.
Now that I have a daughter of my own I try to read to her every night. This book fascinates us both and when she reaches out to try and touch one of the characters on the page, I know exactly how she feels. What kind of father would I be if I denied her the world of Seuss? It would be like stealing the color yellow or putting her imagination in handcuffs. Plus, it gives me an excuse to read all those cool stories all over again. Seuss is just cool.