Books part duex - Dr. Suess

Dr. Suess. AKA Theodore Geisel. He started writing children’s books in the late 30’s and early 40’s with “To think that I saw it on Mulberry Street”, which was rejected by 27 publishers. He was clearly ahead of his time. Not only in that he wrote fun, nonsensical rhyming books for kids, in an age of Dick and Jane, but many of his books carry a deeper meaning about the environment (The Lorax), war (The Butter Battle Book), hatred and segregation (The Sneetches) and health care (You’re Only Old Once: a book for obsolete children). Here are my favorite lines from that book:

For your Pill Drill you’ll go to Room Sic Sixty-three,
where a voice will instruct you, “Repeat after me…
This small white pill is what I munch
At breakfast and right after lunch
I take the pill that’s Kelly green
Before each meal and in between.
These loganberry-colored pills
I take for early morning chills.
I take the pill with zebra stripes
To cure my early evening gripes.
These orange-tinted ones, of course,
I take to cure my charley horse.
I take three blues at half past eight
To slow my exhalation rate.
On alternate nights at nine p.m.
I swallow pinkies. Four of them.
The reds, which make my eyebrows strong,
I eat like popcorn all day long.
The speckled browns are what I keep
Beside my bed to help me sleep.
This long flat one is what I take
If I should die before I wake.”

If you’re ever in the mood for simple fun, try my other favorites, What Was I Scared of? (pale green pants with nobody inside ‘em!) and Fox in Socks. It’s hard to not to giggle while reading about when tweedle beetles battle with their paddles in a bottle on a noodle eating poodle.