Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss

According to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Dr. Seuss turned 104 today. In fact, his birthday also coincides with National Across America Day. According to the Arizona Republic, schools across the state of Arizona are using today to read a lot of Dr. Seuss's work for a week long celebration of reading. According to that Atlanta Journal article, "It's easy to forget the impact of Dr. Seuss. He famously wrote "The Cat in the Hat" following a challenge from his publisher. That publisher read a national report showing most schoolchildren had trouble reading because their books were boring."

Most of us know who Dr. Seuss is, or at least, have read many of his books over the years as kids, in school and as parents. I have used Dr. Seuss for several years in both my classes and as a parent and love the books and the fun that kids have reading them.

In school, I have used the books for a couple of reasons. In Speech class, I have students give a speech from a children's book. Most of the students will pick something from a Dr. Seuss book, either 'Green Eggs and Ham' or 'One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.' Using these books, the students have a fun time presenting something that everyone enjoys and it is also challenging. If you haven't read out-loud some of Dr. Seuss's books, give it a try. It is not as easy as it looks, especially something like 'One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish." There are a lot of rhyming and togune-twisters that can make reading it a little tough, especially if you try to read it quickly. This is where I enjoy using the books before a speech competition. Speaking clearly is important in a speech contest and a great way for students to get their lips moving and enunciate properly is to have them read some of Dr. Seuss's books. This lets them get ready, and it's a great way for students to have a little bit of fun and not get stressed-out by thinking too much about their competition.

However, it is reading the books to my kids that I have seen the greatest benefit of the Dr. Seuss books. My oldest daughter is only 7 and she loves to read. She is always reading and is quite advanced for her age because she is already reading middle-school level books. A good reason for this is the fact that my wife and I read a lot of books to her when she was little. A lot of those books were of course Dr. Seuss books. The books were fun to read and she always seemed to enjoy them when we read them to her. She got it in her head that reading was fun and can be entertaining. Needless to say, we have quite a few Dr. Seuss books and have continued to read them to our second child as well, who seems to love the stories just as much as her older sister did.

I would encourage any parent to get as many of the Dr. Seuss books as they can and read them to their children. Getting kids hooked on reading early will help them succeed in school and in life. Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss, and thank you!

Laura Diamond, "Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss"; Atlanta-Journal Constitution

Lori Baker, "Author's birthday starts week devoted to books", Arizona Republic