Dr. Seuss and Read Across America

Dr. Seuss is a beloved and prolific children's author whose books remain immensely popular decades after they were first written and have resulted in 11 TV specials, 4 movies, a Broadway Musical, and 4 TV series. His stories entertain, inspire, and educate children (and adults).  And because of all of this Dr. Seuss' birthday has been adopted as the date for National Read Across America.

Read Across America was developed by the National Education Association and works to encourage literacy and education among children and teens. They have an annual Oh, The Places You'll Go College Scholarship for art, which was Dr. Seuss' passion. This year they're also having The Lorax Project to help raise awareness about conservation and the rain forest.  

Which is one of the wonderful things about Dr. Seuss, his stories often framed complex social issues in a way children can understand.  (Granted, not everyone was excited about his children's books involving social commentary.  Loggers were especially upset about The Lorax).  Which makes it unsurprising that in 1941 Dr. Seuss took a break from writing his Horton books and turned to WWII propaganda.

This combined with his wonderful illustrations, and desire to write interesting stories to help children learn to read (Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham use 250 and 50 words respectively and were written as answers to the boring Dick and Jane books that were used to teach children how to read) makes Dr. Seuss the perfect author to combined with Read Across America.

I hope everyone takes some time today to read some Dr. Seuss.