Please Let The Cat Out Of The Hat!!

As many of you may know by now, I have three children. Yes, I have subscribed to these books. You know the flyers: Buy one get 6 other Dr. Seuss titles for free. So of course after each of my kids were born, I would send for the books. I have just recently passed down some of my kids' Dr. Seuss books to our nephew next door. He likes Dr. Seuss and will be starting school next year. I thought some of these books would help him learn some simple words before he starts kindergarten.



***Cat In The Hat by Dr. Seuss.***


We find 2 children left alone. It was too cold to play outside, so they just sat all day. The children get an unwelcome visitor who ends up making a huge mess in the house. He is a cat, with a red and white-striped hat. He brings along 2 partners in crime, Thing One and Thing Two. The children are terrified at their antics, but the cat cleans up his mess before he departs the house.


*I sat there with Sally.
*We sat there, we two.
*And I said, "How I wish
*We had something to do!"

*Too wet to go out,
*And too cold to play ball.
*So we sat in the house.
*We did nothing at all.


I like books by Dr. Seuss. This particular book is mostly rhyming the second and fourth sentences, although, some of the paragraphs consist of 5 lines.As with other books by Dr. Seuss, these books are geared towards the reader that is just starting to learn letters and words. Most of the sentences are very short. However, some of the sentences are disjointed and nonsensical.


The colors that seemed to dominate the few pictures in the book are: red, white, blue and a few pinks thrown in. I don't know if the specific use of these colors was intentional for keeping and holding a kids attention or not.


My children loved these books when they were 3 and 4 years old. A lot of the words repeat more than twice throughout the book. For instance, one page repeats the phrase, "What a shame." Also some of the phrases rhyme, which I feel keeps the childs' attention. That way they might actually want to read until the last page is turned. Usually, my child became bored by the middle of the book, but finished reading anyhow.
I used to have my children read one book a night.


*Then our mother came in
*And she said to us two,
*"Did you have any fun?
*Tell me. What did you do?"

*And Sally and I did not know
*What to say.
*Should we tell her,
*The things that went on there that day?


I would recommend this book to any parent of a toddler or a child learning it's letters or names of colors for that matter. There are only 61 pages in this book published by Random House.


There are many other great children's books by Dr. Seuss. Some of my childrens favorites by Dr. Seuss are: Green Eggs and Ham, Hop On Pop, Horton Hears A Who, The Foot Book, and There's A Wocket in My Pocket.


These books are excellent for reading time with your child. My children used to request this book for their nightly bedtime ritual. "Mom, read me a book, please." They would fall asleep halfway through the book.


You can find this book in your library or any bookstore. I have evne seen some Dr. Seuss titles at the Dollar Store. I priced them at Ames last year, and these books average $1.50.


These books make an excellent birthday present for a child in your kids class. Also these books make a great gift for a Christmas gift. When my children were in Kindergarten, I purchased different titles by Dr. Seuss and wrapped up three books in one present for my son to exchange as a gift with the child who's name he drew for the Christmas party in his class. My neighbor's son is in 3rd grade and he admitted he still likes this book.


As always thanx for reading.

wanda