The secret dark art of Dr. Seuss We like to take our time when we read. With each word, each image, each moment of reading, we experience a greater appreciation for the author. Some books call out to be savored, not quickly paged through. Others are designed for a hurried page-turner, where the reader skips any words they find difficult to read. Seuss was so enamored with text in his own work that he made his entire early career of book illustration revolve around it. He created his first work of literature in 1939, and had his first illustrated children’s book published in 1954. The text-heavy stories were published in magazines such as Redbook and Collier’s, which sold widely to the middle class. By the time he found his stride in 1962 with the publication of Green Eggs and Ham, he was already a household name with a brand that had outlived its purpose. But in many of these early works, Dr. Seuss showed his mastery of the form, his ability to convey a story and, at the same time, to entertain. Many kids will recognize the title of Green Eggs and Ham — but for those who don’t know the story, you have to reread the text that accompanies the illustrations to know what’s going on. The text is a fun read, but it is also in complete control of the reader. It guides us through the story, but leaves a lot to the imagination. While Dr. Seuss is usually recognized for his whimsical illustrations, he didn’t do this merely for aesthetic value, but to add depth and story to each picture. If a reader has seen a horse or an elephant in a story before, he can visualize them in his mind. The illustrations create an aha moment. But, it’s not the drawings themselves — it’s what the pictures do to the reader’s imagination. It’s clear that many of Dr. Seuss’s books owe their existence to the form of the children’s book. So why are most of them aimed at older children? The answer is in the text, which doesn’t make sense for children, especially younger children. For example, The Cat in the Hat began its life as a poem titled “Dreary Dull Book” written by Dr. Seuss and then illustrated by Lynn Munsinger. The Cat in the Hat came later, with a complete overhaul of the text to make it appealing to children. This “tweak” made the book much easier to read and to understand. The moral of the story is that sometimes the best way to make a book accessible is to completely revise it and strip it of its narrative. It’s easy to see how this can backfire — books like Dr. Seuss’s Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? make a mess out of the text, only to leave the intended reader cold. So let’s return to the subject of Dr. Seuss and the question of accessibility. Dr. Seuss is a writer whose books, even with their simple text, are aimed at older children and can be tricky for younger ones to navigate. This brings us to a conundrum: Dr. Seuss makes fun, accessible, educational, entertaining books that are aimed at the younger set. So why don’t we see these same books in bookstores with a simplified, educational text? The answer lies in how we teach reading to younger children. Children (and most adults, frankly) are not ready to read Dick and Jane in early elementary school. It takes much longer for children to be ready for the complexities of the English language. Children need to be exposed to a lot more text — to the alphabet and numbers — before they are ready to tackle more complex material. Dr. Seuss is designed for the older set, and as a result it’s accessible, but it doesn’t actually teach very much about reading and writing. These children’s books are actually easy reads for elementary school students, but it can be frustrating as a child when they can’t relate to the text. Why? Because Dr. Seuss doesn’t actually write children’s books. These books are geared towards the youngest kids, but adults can relate to Dr. Seuss’s work. The text is a joke for adults — a joke made just for fun, not education or serious information about the world. Dr. Seuss’s stories and books — unlike children’s books — are enjoyable reads for adults, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have any educational value. It’s just that we don’t read children’s books because we need them, but we read children’s books because we want to share a laugh or an adventure. Reading Dr. Seuss Many readers today don’t read Dr. Seuss’s work because they believe that adults shouldn’t be enjoying children’s books, because Dr. Seuss is too childish. While Dr. Seuss himself certainly enjoyed drawing children, he did so as a tool to illustrate stories he wrote and liked. He saw that children’s books were a way for him to make a name for himself in children’s literature, but there is no way that he ever intended them to be the sole focus of his career. Dr. Seuss makes work for the fun of it, but it’s important not to confuse him with someone like Eric Carle. Many people would be unable to tell you who Carle is, while they could identify Dr. Seuss in an instant. This might seem like a weird point to make, but we should remember that “Dr.” doesn’t actually mean “doctor” — it’s just a way to make the title sound more professional. The only thing that’s important to Dr. Seuss is that the stories be entertaining to as many people as possible. Dr. Seuss is an author who is easy to read. When reading Dr. Seuss, adults see what a child would see, if that child were forced to translate Dr. Seuss into another language. There is no one who could translate the art of Dr. Seuss without making a complete hash of it, because Dr. Seuss doesn’t actually mean anything. When it comes to Dr. Seuss’s text, only the child can translate it. And a good Dr. Seuss text is so easy to read that adults actually get bored when they read it! Adults don’t read Dr. Seuss for fear of being boring — or because of any pretense that the text might be too high-falutin’ for their brains to comprehend — but because he’s funny, which is why kids like Dr. Seuss. The art in Dr. Seuss, though, is designed to keep adults entertained, and it does just that. For this reason, the text shouldn’t be overlooked. It’s easy to see why Dr. Seuss appeals to the younger set. Reading books like Oh, The Places You’ll Go! and How the Grinch Stole Christmas makes children giggle, or makes them think for themselves. This doesn’t make them experts on the text, or even competent readers, but that’s not the point. The reason children love reading books like this is because the story does nothing for them. It’s the illustrations that intrigue the young. Dr. Seuss: a master of words, an amateur in art As I’ve written before, it takes a good deal of skill to illustrate a book — you have to be able to capture your audience’s attention in only a few pictures. You also have to ensure that you capture the right elements of your story to make the entire text understandable and entertaining. Some Dr. Seuss