Dr. Seuss

It seems almost as if, from the time they exit the comforts of the womb, as much as a child is growing and developing, they are on a collision course with certain, truly inescapable, cultural icons. Like death and taxes, so is the inevitability of Dr. Seuss and over the last few weeks, our home has been filled with Wockets and Zeds and Zingers and Gacks, bouncing off the walls and back.

Actually, one of the first books that I ever read to Kaia was Dr. Seuss’s ABC. For the baby shower for Kaia that our friends held for us, we asked people not to being presents, but rather to come with their favorite childhood book to help build Kaia’s library. In addition to being a great way to bring out people’s “stories about the stories”, it also made for a lot of fun and we received some great books that we might never have known about. Of course, most of the books we had heard about before and Dr. Seuss was expectedly the most popular author. ABC was in “board book” form and I started reading to him when he was just a few days old….Aunt Annie’s Alligator, A a A.

Kaia has always had a love for books and for reading, yet for the longest time the Dr. Seuss books were not moving from their place on the bookshelf. Books about Curious George and Pigeons Driving Busses (anything about busses for that matter) were well worn and I will forever be able to recite those stories by memory. Yet something happened a few weeks back and Kaia pulled out Hop on Pop and thrust it into my face, ‘bap ban bap, bap ban bap’. My tongue hasn’t been the same since.

In fact, I like Dr. Seuss quite a bit. I can imagine how radical it must have been to the stogy old-school children’s literature establishment to have these maddening and elliptical rhymes accompanied by such hybrid creatures as Yinks and Gox. Recently an Indian friend told me that he doesn’t ‘get’ Dr. Seuss. I suppose that on many levels, there isn’t a whole lot to get…perhaps this is the point, and most certainly the fun. However, as much as I appreciate how Seussian writing changed the genre, I must say that, from a parent who is being asked to read these over and over, I am quickly growing tired of it. I am not ashamed to say that, after a few readings of Fox in Socks, I am exhausted! Think I’m a lightweight? Try this out, and these are only a few pages:

Well then... bring your mouth this way.
I'll find it something it can say.

Luke Luck likes lakes.
Luke's duck likes lakes.
Luke Luck licks lakes.
Luck's duck licks lakes.

Duck takes licks in lakes Luke Luck likes.
Luke Luck takes licks in lakes duck likes.
I can't blab such blibber blubber!
My tongue isn't make of rubber.

Mr. Knox. Now come now. Come now.
You don't have to be so dumb now....
Try to say this, Mr. Knox, please....

Through three cheese trees three free fleas flew.
While these fleas flew, freezy breeze blew.
Freezy breeze made these three trees freeze.
Freezy trees made these trees' cheese freeze.
That's what made these three free fleas sneeze.

But, I suppose that I have no one to blame but myself. You see, children’s books are so inexpensive in India (all books for that matter), and the Random House line of Dr. Seuss and other Cat in the Hat labeled ‘beginner books’ (written and illustrated by other people, like the classic ‘Go, Dog. Go!’, which Kaia calls ‘Dog, go, go!’) are less than half the price of what you would pay in the U.S. It is the same book, in fact the price in US dollars is inscribed on the back, so of course what ends up happening is that you just spend the same amount of money and buy twice as many books as you would in the States. Funny how this bit of consumerism works. So what has happened is that Kaia’s interest in these books has led me to the bookstore with him, where we proceed to fill our basket and, in just over two weeks, we now find ourselves with 14 different stories, each with its own maddening poetic meter. If you don’t see any posts over the next few weeks, know it is from Death by Seuss that I perished.

Stop it! Stop it!
That's enough, sir.
I can't say such silly stuff, sir.

Amen.

Why I Love this Time: His growing love for animals.