Book Description

In this unique introduction to the Holocaust, Eve Bunting encourages young children to stand up for what they think is right, without waiting for others to join them. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Brief Reflections On Terrible Things
I stumbled upon this book whilst babysitting my niece and I'd like to give my thoughts on it. Many well-meaning liberal parents may buy this for their children, which I think is a mistake.

The reading level of this book is about 4-6. Children young enough to be entertained by this story should not know anything of the reality of the holocaust. Not until they are atleast 8 or 9. A child of 4 or 5 is simply too young to be forced to deal with what is, probably, the most horrendous evil of this or any century.

At first, since the subtitle reads: "an allegory of the holocaust", I was expecting something similiar to "Maus" but instead, I got something more akin to an allegorical re-telling of Martin Niemoeller's famous and oft-quoted phrase ("First they come for the communists, but I did not speak up...). First they come for the animals with tails (or something, I don't remember exactly) and then the squirrels and various other woodlawn creatures. Then the animals discuss never letting it happen again.

Now, it's a fine moral and one that needs to be learned. All I'm suggesting is that we don't let good intentions and liberal ideals push our children into the hard facts of adult existence too quickly. It's devastating enough to know that man is capable of such brutal cruelty when you're an adult.

Once you learn that there were people named Josef Mengele and Adolf Hitler, the world ceases to be the same happy place (and there's no going back... seraphim with flaming swords bar the gate to that Eden).

Let children prolong their naive ignorance of the fact that man can be a cruel and vicious animal for as long as it is socially responsible for you to do so. I suggest that this should be longer than 5-6 years.

Great Really Great
Brilliant! I really recommend this book to anyone who wants to teach there kids about holocaust things.

Terrible Things
Terrible Things is based on the Holocaust and what happened during that time. Animals are used instead of people, and a forest instead of Europe. It talks about how terrible things came into the woods and took away animals by what they were or what they had for a tail or feathers. The animals talked to one another about their friends being taken away after it happened and not trying to prevent it from happening again. I think it teaches that there are times when you should get involved with business that doesn't include you and times when you shouldn't.
I think the age level is maybe around 7-9 years. I think the book was interesting because it teaches history and is a story at the same time.

Martin Niemoeller's lesson turned into a parable for kids
I was curious to see how Eve Bunting would turn the Holocaust into an allegory appropriate for young children, but as soon as I started reading "Terrible Things" the inspiration for her story became clear. The Terrible Things first come to the forest for every creature with feathers on its back. The frogs, squirrels, and other animals quickly declare that they do not have feathers, that the forest is better without the birds, and that they are all glad that it was not them that the Terrible Things wanted.

Clearly Eve Bunting takes her text from the famous statement attributed to Martin Niemoeller. If I remember correctly Niemoeller was a pastor. He told about how in Germany the Nazis first came for the Communists, but since he was not a Communist he did not speak up. Then they came for the Jews, but again he did not speak up because he was not a Jew. The same rationale explained his silence when they came for the trade unionists and Catholics. "Then they came for me," Niemoeller said, "and by that time no one was left to speak up."

Niemoeller's words might be the most famous declaration about the Holocaust and its appropriateness for being the basis of an allegory for young children should be self-evident. Bunting is not talking as much about the mass exterminations by the Nazis as she is about the culpability of the ordinary citizens who looked the other way when terrible things happened in Germany. The rhetorical question Bunting asks is "If everybody had stood together at the first sign of evil would this have happened?" If young children do not know the answer to that question before they read "Terrible Things," they certainly will afterwards.

Before she tells the story, which is illustrated by Stephen Gammell with pencil drawings, Bunting provides the moral for her tale. Acknowledging that standing up for what you know is right is not always easy, especially when you are facing someone biggers and stronger than you are, Bunting admits to her readers that it is easier to look the other way, "But if you do, terrible things can happen." The strength of "Terrible Things" is that Bunting makes the lesson Niemoeller shared about the Holocaust easily recognizable and understandable to young children.

Terrible things
Terrible things is a very touching book. It tells the story of the Holocaust in a slightly less potent way, it tells the story with animals instead of people. The book is one of the best children's books I've read, it's really very well written. Yet the book is very sad.
This book is a great way to teach kids about the terrible holocaust. It's teaches a great lesson to children about racism and classifying people. I like how they made the Germans just a big terrible black thing. It was amazing to see how quick the animals turned there back on each other. This is a wonderful book and I recommend it to people of all ages. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Marco is in a pickle. His father has instructed him to keep his eyes peeled for interesting sights on the way to and from school, but all Marco has seen is a boring old horse and wagon. Imagine if he had something more to report, say, a zebra pulling the wagon. Or better yet, the zebra could be pulling a blue and gold chariot. No, wait! Maybe it should be a reindeer in that harness. Marco's story grows ever more elaborate as he reasons that a reindeer would be happier pulling a sled, then that a really unusual sight would be an elephant with a ruby-bedecked rajah enthroned on top. "Say! That makes a story that no one can beat, / When I say that I saw it on Mulberry Street."Time and again, Marco tops himself until he is positively wound up with excitement and bursts into his home to tell his dad what he saw on Mulberry Street.

Pulitzer-prize winning Dr. Seuss needs no introduction. His ode to the imagination of a child is as fresh and exquisitely outlandish today as it was when first published in 1937. This is a classic that will never fade with age. (Ages 3 to 8) --Emilie Coulter ... Read more

Reviews (12)

An uneven jaunt along Mulberry Street
First published in 1937, "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street" is, I believe, the earliest of Dr. Seuss' many children's books. While it is an entertaining book with humorous illustrations, on the whole I find "Mulberry Street" to be oddly unsatisfying.

The story concerns young Marco, who has been asked by his father to tell him what he sees on the walk home from school. Seeing nothing but a horse and wagon, Marco lets his imagination run wild, until the horse and wagon are transformed into an elephant and brass band, accompanied by numerous other people and animals.

Without giving away the ending, I will say that the book seems to deliver a curiously conflicted message regarding storytelling and imagination. Although "Mulberry Street" is not at the level of Seuss' greatest classics, it is still an important landmark in children's literature, and would make a good addition to any family or school library.

Leslie and Lisa's Review
My favorite book out of the ten I read is And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street by Dr. Seuss. I liked this book because after you read it your imagination is running wild. It is a book about a young boy's imagination when you can't stop it from running like an Energizer battery. After the story was over I couldn't stop thinking about more things to add to the young boy's story to make it even better. It is a great book for this project because you are really tapping into your childhood and your young imagination. I think everyone should read this book to see the magic of being a child. If you like Dr. Seuss books this is one you will really enjoy. It is fast pace and it rhymes to help the story be more fun.
My stepmom thought that this book was very creative because it was full of imagination. This book made her laugh because all of Marco's ideas were very silly and fun. She thought that it read at a very fast pace. She also loved the pictures and drawings because they kept changing as the boy's thoughts kept elaborating. The words rhymed from line to line keeping her interest throughout the book. Lastly, she shared that Dr. Seuss is one of her favorite authors of all time.

Mulberry Street
The main character in this book is named Marco, and he has a slight problem with an over-active imagination. Every morning when Marco leaves home to walk to school, 'Dad always says to me, "Marco, keep your eyelids up and see what you can see."' We meet Marco when he is on the way back from school and all he's noticed 'was a horse and a wagon on Mulberry Street.' Marco isn't too proud of this observation, "That can't be my story. That's only a start. I'll say that a ZEBRA was pulling that cart!"

Slowly and surely the story changes, now the zebra is pulling a chariot, now it's a reindeer, next it's pulling a sled and before you know it, he's got two giraffes and an elephant pulling a big brass band with a trailer attached on behind going through town escorted by the police. Marco gets so excited about this 'story that no one could beat! And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street!' But when Dad asks him what he sees he replies '"Nothing" I said, growing red as a beat, "but a plain horse and wagon on Mulberry street."'

The story is told in rhyme, as you might be able to see from some of the quotes I used. The story flows wonderfully, just like all of Dr. Seuss' works. The pictures are wonderful as well. The way all the animals are smiling and seem pleased that they get to pull these things is just really cute. The colors used are really nice, and the pictures are really bold and bright.

Personally, this is one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books because I really like Marco's imagination and how he is always telling 'such outlandish tales... turning minnows into whales'.

Loggie-log-log-log

what was that
I think that the book was a good one b/c the writer has a good amagination with the reindeer and all the other edzotic animals. all in all it was a good book

This is a cute book.
This is a very cute story for young readers about a boy who makes up something imaginative and then tells his father the truth, after all that work. ... Read more

Book Description

Illus. in color. Dr. Seuss's characters explore the zany world of feet. ... Read more

Reviews (40)

A must for every young child's library!
The Foot Book is terrific, but be sure that you buy the 32 page white-covered version, not one of the inferior board books.

My children have loved this book since 6 months. The story is very simple - it shows all different kinds of feet, from wet feet and dry feet to fuzzy fur feet. There aren't many words on each page, so there is lots of page turning to keep the youngest kids interest. Dr. Seuss used a sing-song rhyme, which reads quickly and is very soothing. We read it over and over again.

The artwork is classic Suess, with a focus on feet!

I credit The Foot Book with fostering my children's love of books. At just 12 months my daughter will bring the book to me and climb into my lap for a reading. (Fair warning - you will know this book by heart!)

My older child was bored with this book by about age 2, because it is so simple, but is now enjoying it again as I read it to her sister, and I think it will be a popular choice when she starts learning to read.

My recommendation is to get this book early and enjoy it often!

Dr. Seuss introduces young readers to the joy of adjectives
"The Foot Book" by Dr. Seuss is a Bright and Early Book for Beginning Readers, a series of books for the youngest of the young. The idea here is that the stories are brief and funny, the words are few and easy, and there is always a catchy sense of rhyme. Of course "The Foot Book" is about not only the foot (singular) but feet (plural). There are more references to feet (plural) than to feet (singular), if you happen to pay attention to such things (which, apparently, I did). But the key part of this book are all the adjectives that Dr. Seuss comes up with for all those feet.

This happens mostly in terms of oppositional pairs such as right and left, wet and dry, high and low, front and back, etc. Of course sometimes rhyme comes into play as well, such as when we go from small feet to big feet and then to pig feet. The illustrations all feature the strange hairy creatures that populate the imagination of Dr. Seuss, although you will see a pair of rather normal looking kids in the mix as well. Did you ever stop to think that Dr. Seuss is probably the most influential poet of his generation? He is certainly the most imitated, and behind all those silly rhymes was a deep desire to get kids to read. Once your beginning reader has read "The Foot Book," be sure to have them check out the sequel, "Fox in Sox."

A must have for all!
This is one of the first books my son fell in love with. He would laugh as I used different voices to go with the words and pictures. This book is also great to help with opposites. This is definately a library must have for all.

it was a funny book
this book is funny, just because it talks about feet.i read it twice. i recommend it, it was good.

Don't buy this version, get the original!
The original hardcover The Foot Book is absolutely awesome, but I had a lot of trouble finding it to buy on Amazon (it has a white cover, not green). For some reason the only versions that came up in my search were the board books. My daughterss have loved this book since they were 6 months old (one is now 12 months and the other is 3 1/2), and my copy is very tired.

Be aware that this version only has 12 pages and has stickers and flaps, which get torn and make a mess. If you're looking for the original version, click on "hardcover edition" on this page and you're all set.

I can't see any reason to purchase the shortened, board book version of this classic unless you're concerned with torn pages. There aren't many words on each page, and the rhymey, sing-song story is short enough to hold your child's attention for the entire book. We read this book together for storytime, and put the sturdier books into the crib for play.

The Foot Book belongs in every small child's library, but go with the real deal, not this dumbed-down version. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great book for young students learning about weather.
I am a student teahcer. When I had to plan a unit for my kindergarteners about weather, I did not know how to teach it on their level. This book really helped me to come up with the right words to help the students understand what I was trying to get across to them. GREAT BOOK!!! I checked it out from the library at the school I am working at; however, I WILL be getting my own personal copy. Thank you Gail!!! ... Read more

Reviews (5)

MILK MAKERS
I understand why this was a reading rainbow book. It is a great experiment activity non-fiction book. This book exaplins how milk is processed. Most children most likely think that the milk in the fridge comes from the store. What they may not realize is that it comes from a farm miles away. This book goes into great detail how milk is made, and the makeup of cattle. it also gives brief descriptions of variuos types of cattle and dairy products. The illustrations use labels and bright colors. I think this is a good non-fiction book for children. It is in a language that they understand and it is easily read. The book is also very accurate as are all, her books. Gibbons was raised on a dairy farm and has made numerous trips to the dairy farm.
In close this is a good book for children, especially for a science unit. I would have this in my classroom library for childen to perhaps complete a report about milk or other products. Gibbons has a great series on the way variuos things are made.

Excellent resource book on farming and dairy production
This book is highly enjoyable and informative for children, and I think that every child with an interest in farming would be happy to own a copy. I strongly recommend this book to parents everywhere!

Excellent book!
this was such a great story for our kids to read - we live near a dairy farm and this book gave them a lot of insight into the real working of a dairy farm - it answered a lot of their questions and ours too! We love this book!

Milk Makers
This is a great book for kids - it is interesting, informational, and fun!

This is a great book to introduce children to milk productio
We took this book out from our local library and found it to be so good we are buying it! My husbands family were dairy farmers and we try to educate our daughters about dairy farming as much as possible. This book give enough educational detail about cows and milk production to be informative for a young child and encourage discussion about cows and the process of milk production. I recommend this book to anyone with a young child interested in cows, milk or farming. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Gives Me the Warm Fuzzies
One of my top 5 favorite children's books! The story line is touching, the illustrations are amazing! I recommend this book to young and old! Besides the beautiful bond between Joseph and his grandfather, I love the incorporated journey of the family of mice that is illustrated at the bottom of the pages - the little girl with the red coat and hankerchief covered head is also brilliant! So many stories happening in one book! A definate 'keeper'

Enchanting!
There are many versions of this story in print (it is a classic Yiddish story) but Gilman's version is far and away the best.
Joseph, a wonderfully drawn character, receives a beautiful blanket from his grandfather. As he ages, the blanket is transformed into a jacket, a vest, a scarf etc.
The prose is very well-done and very lively with lots of repetition which will please children and their parents. The illustrations, however, really make this book. They are fantastic! The world of the shtetl really comes to life in these detailed drawings (in fact, living in a shtetl actually looks pretty good which is an amazing accomplishment!).
I have given this book to friends and family---both Jewish and non-Jewish and everyone has loved it. Buy it, find a blanket and curl up with a child to read this one!

A book to grow up with!
I've seen a few knock-offs of this story, and actually, they're all based on a classic Yiddish folktale, so I guess they have the right. But in my mind -- and my kids'! -- Gilman's sweet take on this tale of old-world frugality and love will always be the "classic."

Gilman's richly colourful paintings are full of action, vivid cross-sections depicting events playing out in all the rooms of Joseph's house, out on the street, and even in the cellar where a growing family of mice plays out a surprising "bonus" story of their own.

The characters here are all believable; Joseph is as mischievous and playful as any modern child. And the time flow in this book is exquisite: as in life, Gilman's transforms Joseph from page in subtle but certain stages, bringing him from early childhood into his cheder years.

This is a story kids will love to listen to over and over, and even adults will enjoy making new discoveries within the familiar illustrations. A superlative gift for any child, one which will grow with them and be cherished for years to come.

8 year-old from North Bend
I gave this book five stars because it had really good word choice and it reminded me of a blanket I used to have. I would recommend it to 7 year-olds or older. It is my favorite book. I have read it 25 times.

Wonderfully repetetive book
I used this book in a daycare class of two and three year-olds. It's great!! The repetition gets children involved actively with the story and the artistry keeps children busy looking for all sorts of details. Wonderful book for children of all ages. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Subtitled "Dr. Seuss's Surprising Word Book," The Shape of Me and Other Stuff certainly lives up to its billing. In this delightful book, first published in 1973, kids are encouraged to ponder shapes they may never have considered before: "Just think about the shape of beans and flowers and mice and big machines!" Dr. Seuss's illustrations are in silhouette (for the purpose of accenting the outlines of figures), but are nonetheless up to par with his usual wacky, amusing style. Soaring well beyond the mundane arena of circles, triangles, and squares, here we are challenged to consider "the shape of camels … the shape of bees and the wonderful shapes of back door keys!" Kids will love the silly rhymes and funny pictures, and parents will appreciate this original take on the largely untapped world of shapes. (Baby to preschool) ... Read more

Reviews (8)

The Shape of Me
My daughter got this book for her first birthday, and it quickly became one of her favorites. She loved the rhymes based on familiar objects, and enjoyed pointing out the corresponding pictures. I think she liked the fact that the vocabulary was based on words she actually knew and could even repeat, and objects that were part of her everyday life.

the shape of you and other things
The book the shape of me and other stuff is about the shape of you and things around you. It teaches you that there is nothing the same shape. The age level for this book would be threeto five. This book was good but it would be better for three to five year olds.

The Shape of Me and Other Stuff
The book " The Shape of Me and Other Stuff" is a fun book to read. I think probably anybody could read it and like it. It has good rymes and has a good flow. It has nice big illustrations, not alot of color but they are still good for young readers to see. It talks about what everthing looks like and i think it was written to show kids that not everything is the same. The main point in the story is to not want to be someone or something and to be happy with who you are.

Practice in Noticing Small Differences in Outline Shapes
One of the most difficult problems that many beginning readers have is to notice those pesky little differences between letters (like b and d, and q and p). Many children don't focus that much and get a general impression of a shape when looking at a letter or a group of letters. This interesting beginning reader helps you child to "see" the benefits of studying detail more closely.

The book is primarily a series of solid shapes (mostly black on white) set off with bright colors used in some shapes, as backgrounds for others, and as rectangles around words. Each one is a different item. Some of the many items silhouetted include a bug, balloon, bed, bike, beans, flowers, mice, big mahines, elephants, ships, teapots, water dripping, bird cages, peanuts, pineapple, noses, grapes, glasses, scissors, the various shapes that gum can be pulled into, smoke, marshmallows, fires, mountains, roosters, horses, tires, camels, bees, back door keys, spider webs, clothes, garden hose, mug, imaginary beings (like a BLOGG), trombone, fish, whale and a frog. This is not all, but it is more than half.

As you can imagine, a young child will be able to identify very few while an older child will get almost all of them. Not all of the profiles have words associated with them in the text.

As a result, this book should be read in different ways at different stages of development. For example, two year olds will identify more objects if they get a hint from you. Also, if you child likes sounds, you could make a sound like the object for your clue.

For an older child, you can also work together to spell the names of the shapes that are not in the text. For someone about to graduate from the book, you could try creating some rhymes with the shapes that are not mentioned.

The book itself is simple to read, and has a typical Dr. Seuss rhyming scheme.

The key lessons are summarized as:

"Everything comes in different shapes."

"No shapes are ever quite alike."

There is also nice encouragement for your child to feel special, for having a unique shape. That's a nice tie-in to the concept of encouraging your child to notice the small differences that help in reading. This point is brought home in the end when the child narrator says, "I say, 'HOORAY for the shapes we're in!'"

This book will be of most value for a child who is starting to have some success in identifying letters, so although this is a beginning reader . . . it's not the first reader you should use.

After you have enjoyed this book, you might also do some art projects in which your child picks out items that she or he wants you to cut out. You could paste them onto a card along with the item's name, and create your own flash cards for words you child wants to learn!

Notice the small things, so you can see the big picture!

An interesting experiment from Dr. Seuss
In "The Shape of Me and Other Stuff," Dr. Seuss experiments with an artistic approach that is very different from that of his best-known work. This book teaches about shapes, and the illustrations consist entirely of silhouettes of various items: people, elephants, boats, keys, etc.

The shadow-like illustrations are accompanied by rhymes in the familiar Seussian style: "Peanuts and pineapples / noses and grapes. / Everything comes in different shapes." While the book is educational and entertaining, I felt that the silhouettes-only art lacked some of the wacky charm of the full Seussian illustration technique. Nevertheless, I recommend "The Shape of Me and Other Stuff" as a fun addition to the family or classroom library. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Information rich book. Perfect for first and second graders!
The detailed illustrations in this book keep my second graders focused. The vocabulary is rich and the scientific information is clear and easy to understand. ... Read more

Book Description

Illus. in color. "Riotous humor in picture and verse as an enterprising Seuss creature hunts uncommon eggs for a super deluxe dish."--Child Study Assn. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

TERRIFIC LIGHT VERSE!
This is a WONDERFUL book that deserves to be as widely read as Seuss' best-known books. The verbose, sprawling, exhuberant light verse is fantastic all by itself, and the illustrations are as strange and wonderful as any of Seuss'. One of the illustrations made me laugh out loud.

Certain myopic adults with no imagination will give themselves ulcers over the fact that this book describes (a) eating the eggs of fanciful birds, (b) cutting down a tree, and (c) knocking down a mountain. But children, and adults who are young at heart, will understand that it's all pretend.

If you enjoy light verse and Seuss' illustrations, Scrambled Eggs Super is not to be missed.

Still Super!
Even after 50 years, this is still one of Theodore Geisel's (aka Dr. Seuss) best books. I revisited it after the words "scrambled eggs super dee duper dee peter t hooper" just popped into my head at lunch one day. And as for the environmental whacko who wrote the one star review .... it's fiction and your kids WILL know the difference even if you don't!!!!! If you think Dr. Seuss was anything other than environmentally conscious then take a gander at the Lorax. It's a great book as well.

scrambled eggs definitely NOT super
The message in this book is very outdated and a nightmare to anyone interested in preserving the environment. I love Dr. Seuss and ordered many of the books for my son. This one however I have to send back. The little boy, not content with hens' eggs, travels far and wide to snatch the eggs of countless rare and exotic birds. He prys off a mountain top to get at one bird, and cuts down an enormous tree (old-growth dimensions) to get at another. And he collects literally thousands of eggs, just to cook up for himself and perhaps his family. This story may have been funny when it was written almost 50 years ago, but today it describes little more than environmental destruction and selfish waste. This is definitely not the message I want to give my son, and I am sending back this book.

Look Beyond the Ordinary to Capture Full Potential!
Peter T. Hooper (of The Cat in the Hat fame) addresses Liz. " . . . [S]peaking of cooks, I'm the best that there is!" He perceives opportunity. "[I]t's sort of a shame that scrambled eggs always taste always the same."

His recipe is more challenging than the Joy of Cooking's version. Hen eggs just won't cut it. You need hundreds of eggs from different kinds of birds (all that you've never heard of), 99 pans, 55 cans of beans, 2/3 cup of sugar, a small pinch of pepper, a pound of horseradish, some nuts, some ginger, nine prunes, three figs, 22 sprigs of parsley, 6 cinnamon sticks, and one clove.

And it's not just any different kinds of eggs. You need eggs from the Ruffle-Necked Sala-ma-goox, Kweet, Tizzle-Topped Grouse, Kwigger, South-West-Facing Crane, Grickily Gructus, Zumm, Bombastic Aghast, and many others. In fact, you have to go to so many places that you need a lot of helpers.

When you're done, you've got Scrambled Eggs Super-dee-Dooper-dee-Booper Special de luxe a-la-Peter T. Hooper. And that's what they taste like, too!

Reading this book reminded me of all the ways that children like to brag. I remember going to a camp picnic, and seeing that the can of pork and beans I had brought looked better with the top opened than the others. I began waxing eloquently about how carefully I had chosen my can of beans. Then, another boy noted that the only reason my beans looked better was because he had stirred them up with a spoon to bring the beans to the top of the can! I became much more humble about my grocery shopping skills after that experience. Peter T. Hooper hasn't been brought to ground yet.

A fun thing to use this book for is to think with your youngster about how favorite dishes could be made even better. Then, you can go on to consider how to add variety to other things that you do. This imagining will expand your child's intellect, and help both of you to lead more purposeful, interesting lives!

Be super!

A book that will take you to many thrilling places!
I remember this book as one of my favorites. As a child I would read it over and over. Now that I have two sons, I have gone to the library several times to borrow it. I recently asked the school library to acquire it and was amazed when they received word that it was out of print. Browsing through a book store this Christmas I stumbled upon a copy of it and snatched it up quickly! Now, I can read this wonderful story to my children anytime they want, and can take it to their classrooms and read it to their friends! I'm delighted to be an owner of this book. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Although I'm Not Going to Get Up Today! is aimed at young readers, it just gets better as you get older. Only after you've weathered more than few world-weary years can you fully appreciate this book's profound and universal message: "The alarm can ring. The birds can peep. My bed is warm. My pillow's deep. Today's the day I'm going to sleep!" But the rhyming words of Dr. Seuss and goofy illustrations from James Stevenson will surely get more than a few giggles from the old and the young, as everyone in town--from brothers and sisters to the police and the Marines--conspires to get our little hero out of bed.But, as the sleepy boy says, "nobody's going to get me up, no matter what he does." (Not with tickling nor shaking nor cold water on the head.) "Nothing's going to get me up. Why can't you understand! You'll only waste your money if you hire a big brass band." (Ages 4 to 8) --Paul Hughes ... Read more

Reviews (9)

A Lesson Sometimes Missed
As a middle school social studies teacher, I was given the challenge to teach a lesson using a picture book. During my search for the perfect history related picture book, I came across this book instead. The lesson I found in it was one perfect for the first day of class. While the synopsis tells the story of a boy who does not want to get up, I feel it is the last two pages that are most important. In these pages, since the boy will not get out of bed, the mother gives his breakfast to someone else. The lesson I pass on to my students is that I will do everything in my power to help them learn. I will bring in marching bands if that will help, but I can not force them. They must get up and reach for what they want (ie do homework and study) or someone else will get the reward (an A). Please buy this book for your children (young and old) with the lesson that they have the option of being lazy, but they just might miss out on something they want or need.

Dr. Seuss hits rock bottom
My wife and I finally stored this book away, because there is nothing redeeming about the message, and it's not particularly creative in any respect either. The book dwells on a boy's obstinance/refusal to get out of bed for an entire day...what a wonderful thought to put in the head of our children. The kid refuses entreaties from his mother and even the police to get out of bed and go to school, and in the end, they just let the kid stay in bed and sleep. So...the message for my 2 year old is: defy your parents long enough, engage in anti-social behavior, and they will give in and let you have your way. I still have to wonder whether Dr. Seuss actually wrote this one. It's just horrid, and the rhymes are like a 6th grader's first attempt at poetry. Blech!

I am not going to get up today
I am not going to get up today is an exciting, silly story. It is about a boy who doesn't want to get up for school, and he swears that nothing in your wildest imagination will get him up. Seuss, the author, has some crazy ideas as to what would normally wake people up, but in this case, nothing will make this imaginative child get out of bed.

This is a MUST HAVE
There's got to be a starting point to reading with your child and this should be the place. All my kids loved this book, it has humor they instantly identify with and are always entertained by. They never get bored with this one.

Book Review
This book uses very good discriptions, it also rymes and the illistrations go along with the the words good. It makes you keep reading and reading because the words are discriptive. I would suggest this book to all kids. ... Read more

Amazon.com

McElligot's Pool is a Seuss classic from the distant era before even The Cat In The Hat. It's a single poetic variation on the theme of adult skepticism that's no match for childhood faith and daydreaming. A small boy is fishing in the tiny, unpromising McElligot's Pool, a puddle that (as a passing farmer informs our diminutive hero) is nothing but a hole where people dispose of their junk. But the boy is all optimism: what if the pool is deeper than anyone thinks? What if it connects to an underground stream that flows under the town to the sea? Might not all sorts of fish then swim up the stream and be caught here? "I might catch an eel... (Well, I might. It depends.) A long twisting eel with a lot of strange bends. And, oddly enough, with a head at both ends!" The moral of the story is straightforward: "If I wait long enough, if I'm patient and cool,/ Who knows what I'll catch in McElligot's pool?"(Ages 4 to 8) --Richard Farr ... Read more

Reviews (11)

McElligot's Pool
As Dr. Seuss books go, this one has a story with both it's feet still firmly rooted on the ground. It is about a young boy who is fishing in a small pool. When an old man tells him that he won't catch anything if he waits 50 years, he imagines that the pool might be joined to an underground river, connected to the sea, where all sorts of wonderful fish live. There is no escaping however that this book is by Dr Seuss. The fish he dreams up are as whimsical as ever anybody has imagined. It is typical Seuss, is he really a Dr. by the way, to imagine a fish that is partly a cow, or an Australian fish with a pouch on it's belly. The pictures, pencil and water colour, are in the same inimitable style as he always uses, however the colours didn't seem to be as vibrant as usual. This may be partly because copy I saw was in poor condition, but some of the pictures were in black and white, which wasn't. The language has the distinctive pattern and rhythm of the Cat in the Hat, or Green Eggs and Ham. The rhymes are not as well crafted as in some of his other work, he sometimes seems to be putting lines in just to make a rhyme. I might see a sea horse (Now mightn't I now) I might see a fish That is partly a cow. This said most of the rhyming is good, and the story is very funny. He uses quite a lot of pronouns and descriptive language as he is creating his fantastical fish. Knowing the story behind Dr. Seuss's first book leads me to think that this may be deliberate. The story seems to peak to a crescendo, although the pictures do not reflect this. The book is about the child's imagination. He is not confined to thinking in the same down to earth terms as the old man. It about hope and optimism. The little boy will keep on trying to fish in Mc Elligot's Pool, because however unlikely, he might just catch the most amazing fish you will ever see. If someone was to make it into a cartoon it would make quite a good lottery advert.

Look at all the fish you can catch!
The earlier reviewer is right; who cannot like a book by Dr. Seuss? This classic children's story is about a boy fishing in a small pool and imagining all types of fish that he might catch, most of them quite fanciful. I still remember laughing when I first read it as a child. The book was a 1948 Caldecott Honor book (i.e., a runner-up to the Medal winner) for best illustration in a children's book.

The Best Seuss Ever!
I read this energetic, imaginative story to my children, and now I get to read it to my grandchildren - that means all the big and little fish will become alive again! The pictures are big - big with personality - and if anyone thought fish were boring, well, think again. My daughter learned to read on this book, and it was the one book she would "read" to me (by memory) - all I did was turn the pages. This is a hard-to-find Seuss book, and well worth the search.

A must-have - McElligott's Pool!
This book is the first book Seuss has written- the cat in the hat came later. This book is often overlooked because people haven't heard of it. I think this is the best Seuss book ever. If you like this book I also reccomend you to buy "In Search of Dr. Seuss." It shows a reporter (Kathy Najimy) trying to find out more about Dr. Seuss. It shows McElligot's Pool as the first Seuss. The other must-have Dr. Seuss book is The Lorax. I LOVE LOVE that book!

Ecellent!!!
This was the best Dr. Seuss book of them all! I read this book when I was a little kid and I still read it now! This is the best book you could buy! ... Read more

Book Description

Let's round 'em up and move 'em along! In words and pictures, Gail Gibbons captures all the excitement and adventure of the Wild West. Her colorful watercolors deftly re-create cowboys' clothing, equipment, and lifestyle, and the lively text includes descriptions of famous cowboys and cowgirls, as well as historical facts. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A nice introduction to farming.
This book provides basic information on farms and has colorful illustrations. The book shows what farms look like during the four seasons and describes the necessary chores for each season. It also discusses different types of farms and different farm animals. My second grade class enjoys reading this book as part of our farm unit. ... Read more

Book Description

Baseball is fun - let's play!

Find all the basics in this lively guide.

• The markings on a baseball diamond
• What baseball players wear
• The positions, from catcher to left fielder
• The excitement of the pitch
• The thrill of hitting a home run

All these and more are included, with a useful glossary at the end.

Reviews (3)

Introducing the game of baseball to younger readers
"My Baseball Book" by Gail Gibbons provides an introduction to the sport of baseball by describing the equipment, playing field, rules, players, and process of the game. The idea is to explain the basics to young readers (ages 3 to 7), so they will understand not only the markings on a baseball diamond, what baseball players wear, and all the positions, but also get a sense of how games are played and why a home run can be a big thrill. Most of the book is devoted to Gibbons describing a game between the Robins and the Owls, in which young readers get the chance to see hits, walks, runs, and other baseball plays in the context of a game.

Although this is supposed to be an introductory book to the game of baseball the information does get a bit technical at times, which means that an adult or older sibling is going to have to explain this a bit more. For example, at one point it is explained that in addition to being a strike if the batter swings and misses that it is also a strike if the batter does not swing but the ball passes through the "strike zone." There are dotted lines suggesting that the strike zone extends from the batter's armpits to his knees, but nothing to add that the ball also has to be over the plate (until you get to the term "strike" in the glossary in the back of the book). Still, on balance "My Baseball Book" is going to help kids by reinforcing what they are learning out on the field, which is the most important way of learning the game.

Nice pictures, needs more expainations.
My children enjoyed the pictures a lot, but did not understand everything the book was describing. If you were already familar with the sport it might be easier. Tends to read flat and technical.

Perfect!
This is a great book for kids! I bought it to introduce my six year old son to baseball. It covers how the game is actually played, rules of play, and reinforces important baseball terms. At just the right length, this book is perfectly titled - My Baseball Book. Great for any budding, young baseball fan! ... Read more

Book Description

Illus. in full color. The meanings of "up" are conveyed with merry verse and illustrations in a happy book that celebrates the joy of life. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Dr. Seuss let's somebody else draw his book on "Up"
"Great Day for Up" is a unique Dr. Seuss book and you can tell this just by looking at the cover. That is because while the book is written by Dr. Seuss it features the jolly drawings of the English artist Quentin Blake. Until this point every time I have read a book written by Dr. Seuss it was also illustrated by Dr. Seuss and when somebody else did the drawings Dr. Seuss used the name Theo. LeSieg (which is "Geisel" backwards). So the fact that this is a real "Dr. Seuss" book drawn by somebody else is pretty special.

This Bright and Early Book provides rhymed text and illustrations introducing the many meanings of the word "up" as Seuss and Blake show beginning readers that this is a "Great day for up!" You get the point half way through the book but little kids should be able to hand on longer, especially when they are reading the book for themselves. Besides, by the end of "Great Day for Up" we get to the point where "EVERYONE on Earth is up!" (with one very important and rather ironic exception).

As with all of the Bright and Early Books for Beginning Beginners what you have here is a brief and funny story, where the words are few and easy, there is a catchy rhythm, and the pictures are happy and colorful clues to the text. These are designed for an even lower age group than the Bright and Early Books that followed "The Cat in the Hat," which was the "Harry Potter" of its day when it came to encouraging even pre-schoolers to discover the delights of reading for themselves. This is not one of the most interesting volumes in the series, but overall these books were a delight.

Great book for beginning readers.
Ya, ya, ya so this book teaches about the meanings of the word "up". But, to me that takes a backseat to the fun rhythm and rhymes that make a child WANT to be able to read the book by themselves. The small vocabulary, phonetically spelled words and visual clues are wonderful for early readers. My step-son enjoys reading this book together at bedtime and can actually read it to US now. I love the "bright and early" books from Dr. Seuss for building early reading skills.

Great day for up
The book was about everyone waking up, getting outside, and having fun. All the characters interacted together, the played outside, and everyone made new friends. I enjoyed reading this book, just he way Dr. Seuss wrote it makes you want to keep reading it. It kept me entertained even though I'm not a little kid. Children between the ages of 4-8 will love this book. It teaches kids to wake up, get out and play, and just have fun; instead of just wasting their time inside doing nothing and watching T.V. If the kids couldn't read then this would be a good book to help them out with because there's not a lot of writing and the words are easy. I loved the ending of the book but you'll have to read it to find out!!

good day
I think this book was a good book. I would recamend it to everyone. it was a fun book. it was a favorite of mine.

A below-average Dr. Seuss Book
Dr. Seuss has some really brilliant books. This book is just a so-so Dr. Seuss. As a parent who is familiar with about 15 Dr. Seuss books, this is one of my least favorite books.

The book attempts to teach the child what "Up" means. There is a terrific amount of repetition, and the cleverness in the rhyming and pictures is not "Up!" to par with other Dr. Seuss books.

My 6-month old children are too young to understand this book, but I think that Mommy and Daddy will tire of the book long before they have gotten the very simple and trivial message in this book : what is the difference between Up and Down ... ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great Details
This is a great book because it offers detailed, factual information about seasons, and doesn't leave any of the important concepts out. It also has great illustrations that are labeled. Gibbons gives children credit for being intelligent enough to understand the complex ways in which our world works, yet understands their developmental needs, and therefore makes the text accessible. ... Read more

Amazon.com

A thoroughly Seussian tweak of the alphabet-book tradition, On Beyond Zebra is about all the letters that most people ignore--the ones that come after Z.Our hero (instantly recognizable to most Seuss fans as the boy who captured Thing One and Thing Two in The Cat in the Hat) takes his young friend, Conrad Cornelius O'Donald O'Dell, on a guided tour of all the weird creatures that begin with letters such as Yuzz, Wumbus, and Glikk. "And Nuh is the letter I use to spell Nutches, Who live in small caves, known as Nitches, for hutches." The message is pretty simple: the alphabet pins down boring old "reality," but if you explore further afield there are more interesting worlds to discover. "So, on beyond Z! It's high time you were shown, / That you really don't know all there is to be known."Explorers in need of guidance will even find a table of useful new letters (a beyondabet? a WumbaGlikk?) in the back. (Ages 4 to 8) --Richard Farr ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Unforgettable
I read this book as a child about 45 years ago. I loved it and never forgot it, although its title transformed in my child's brain to "way beyond Z". It inspired me, fed my imagination and made me feel like a child with special sight. Unlike adults, I KNEW the alphabet beyond Z!! Now that I have located this title again, I will give it to every child I know! Thank you, Dr. Seuss!

Thinking outside the box
This was one of my favorite books as a child. I'm so happy to be able to share it with my nieces. I think all Dr. Seuss' books encourage imagination and creativity, but none more than this.

Mom read it to me, will read it to my nephew
I was in college before I was informed that Dr. Seuss books had "messages". I then thought about it, and decided that my professor was partially right and that this is one of the books with a "message". It teaches you not to stop at the obvious but to see if there is more to life.

Gloriously, the book is so good that you don't notice until you are in college and someone tells you. Which is A Good Thing. I hate books with "messages".

I'm 41, and I bought this book for my just-aquirred 5 year old nephew. Only I re-read it before giving it to him.

Dr. Seuss was a prophet of unfettered imagination
If I were to start my own religion, this would probably be the most sacred text. Dr. Seuss possessed powers of pure imagination unequaled in all of children's literature, and this book is the most inspiring, mind-expanding example of his divine gift. Even more important than Cat in the Hat or The Lorax, every baby born into this world should be given a copy of On Beyond Zebra. Buy it and give it to a child you love today!

Seuss's Structure Slips!
Doctor Seuss has taught us all to enjoy flawless humor, good fantasy, and fantastic illustrations. So it was a great surprise to me when this book didn't carry off its premise smoothly.

The book is a satire on those alphabet books that all children trudge through to learn their ABCs. A is for apple, and so forth, is the predictable format. Here, Dr. Seuss adjusts the format to be about animals. "A is for Ape. And B is for Bear."

The story opens with Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell announcing, "I know all the twenty-six letters like that . . . ."

Our narrator disagrees. "But not me." "In the places I go there are things that I see that I never could spell if I stopped with the Z." "My alphabet starts where your alphabet ends."

Now, here's the problem. Although the book has many interesting and new letters and creatures, each letter is actually just a combination of the first twenty-six. For example, YUZZ is the first new letter, and is illustrated by the tall and hairy Yuzz-a-ma-Tuzz. Although a sort of symbol is established to represent the letter, Dr. Seuss doesn't use the symbol in the rhyme. He always refers to the letter as YUZZ.

Dr. Seuss could have used his new letter symbol wherever it fit into the rhyme, or he could have made up letters that were not combinations of the first twenty-six letters. Either approach would have worked.

I suspect that the structure in the book can either consciously or subconsciously confuse a new reader about what a letter is, what a syllable is, and what a word is. It's all quite unnecessary.

If Dr. Seuss had used his new symbols to form new words, that would have been a nice basis for helping English readers learn how to move back and forth between English and languages with different methods of representation, like Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Hebrew. So, the book's a bit of a missed opportunity in this direction, too.

My suggestion is that if you want to have fun with the story anyway (because the creatures are pretty swell), simply point out that Dr. Seuss made a little goof and clarify the point about what a letter is in whatever way makes the most sense to you for where your child is in reading readiness.

The animals and their names are terrific, and you will enjoy them and their illustrations. Here's a partial list: Wumbus ("my high-spouting whale who lives on a hill"), Umbus ("a sort of a cow" with 98 or 99 "faucets" for giving milk), Humpf-Humpf-a-Dumpfer, Miss Fuddle-dee-Duddle (a bird with the longest tail), Glikker (blue and small, eats seeds, and juggles cinammon seeds), Nutch (lives in small caves that are in short supply), Sneedle (a mos-keedle with a sharp hum-dinger stinger on its head), Quandery (a red creature on shells in the ocean that worries a lot), Thnadner (the big one has a small shadow and the small one a big shadow), Spazzin (a camel-like creature with amazing horns for carrying baggage), Floob-Boober-Bab-Boober-Bah (fish you can use like stepping stones to get across the top of water as they bob on the surface), and Zatz-It (like a tall giraffe).

The story concludes with young o'Dell getting the spirit of the narrator.

"This is really great stuff!

And I guess the old alphabet

ISN'T enough!"

o'Dell draws a new letter:

" . . . what do you think that

we should call this one, anyhow?"

Enjoy imagination, and honor it . . . wherever it may be found! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Excellent Science Book
This is an excellent book for children to learn about life cycles. The text and illustrations make the wonderful miracle of life come alive for the readers. Beginning with the egg and ending with the beautiful Monarch the author clearly explains the changes that take place. Information is also included about the migration patterns of these interesting creatures. The last pages explain how children can raise monarch butterflies so that they can observe this miracle of life first hand. I would highly recommend this book to teachers who teach life cycles as part of their curriculum

From Katrina Holder (7 years old)
I like this book because you can learn things about butterflys that you did not know before. You can also tell other people about it to. The pictures are very nice and pretty. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Very informative and entertaining.
This book does a wonderful job explaining exactly how an item gets recycled. Its thought provoking and entertaining. The illustrations are wonderful. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Good informational text.
This book is great for second language learners who need content information but lack high reading skills.

The Moon Book
Very factual information written on the level of a 1st-4th grade child.

Good to use in the classroom in conjunction with a unit on space. ... Read more