The Alphabet Is Never Boring When Dr. Seuss Is Around!

Learning the alphabet is about as important as learning their phonetic partners. Dr. Seuss books have long been revered as the 'must have' books to get kids interested in learning and reading. Far be it for me to disagree. Be it a cat in a hat, green eggs or colored fish, Theodor Seuss Geisel knew what hooked kids. First printed in 1960 [copyrighted in 1963], "Dr Seuss's ABC" is a very interesting book that will have kids laughing, giggling and learning - all at the same time. One thing that I really like about this book is that it shows the letters in small and large case. Another thing I noticed is that the things used in the images are often something large and something small. This doesn’t ring true for every single letter but it is something that I picked up on as I read it for the hundredth time.

Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Book

As much as I hate to admit it, this is a book that we use at the shop. Sure, we are adults by age but not by actions. I had a subscription to the Grolier Book Club and received a lot of Dr. Seuss themed books that were sitting on the bookshelf collecting dust. Jackson really likes reading through them but how many copies of Dr. Seuss's ABC's can you have in one house? The long running joke about the book is that a stripper left it while she was getting some work done. That is not a slam on strippers, they are some of our best customers. Needless to say, this is a book that you can start reading to your child when they are young. How young? I remember reading this to the brood when they were only a few months old.

So what can this teach a child? There's really no limit if you use a little imagination. You can use it to teach the basics of the alphabet, rhyming words, Seuss characters like Peter Pepper, Icabod, Yolanda Yorgenson and even Lola Lopp. The illustrations are 100% Seuss; they aren't 'over the top' or highly detailed but they are something that sticks with you long after you turn the page. One thing that I never picked up on is the colors that are used; no matter which Seuss book you pick up, you always see the same hues. This goes beyond using the same colors, it's that crimson red, mid tone blue, forest green and pale orange that you always pick up on. This is something that kids pick up on more than adults; I've read this so many times I know 95% of it by heart but I never really tapped into the colors that are used from book to book and the consistency of them.

The combination of bizarre beasts and whimsical words are what make Seuss books captivating and this one is no different. Rosy Robin Ross the red rhinoceros [teaches animals and colors], Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo [teaches size and scale] .. well, you get the general idea of some of the things that this book can teach a child. Read through it and you will see there are tons of things that you can add into the mix; teaching let and right, colors, odd shapes, counting and of course, learning the alphabet. The only limit there is on what you can teach a child with this book is the limit that you place on it. Use your imagination, have some fun but keep it simple.

Of course there are the silly things in it like the entry for the letter "G"; "Goat girl googoo goggles", come on now, does that make the least bit of sense to you? How about "Ten tired turtles on a tuttle-tuttle tree"? I actually Googled "tuttle-tuttle tree" [with and without the hyphen] and realized that there is no such thing. Even so, it's fun to say and rolls effortlessly off the tongue. This is one of many tongue twisters in the book and something that seems to keep the shop employees highly entertained.

When you are making your way through the book the letters are presented in small and large case; sometimes you are asked if you know what words start with a certain letter, other times you are ridiculous rhyming riddle. This is when kids always trump the parents. "Many mumbling mice are making midnight music in the moonlight … mighty nice". I have read this book a lot and every single time I hit that "M" word, I end up saying "mice" instead of "nice". Get used to that verbal trippage, it happens a lot in this book.

Depending on the version you buy, you could end up with something that lasts for years or something that is easily destroyed in weeks. I have never seen this in a soft cover version but that doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. The hard cover versions I own are a little on the tattered side but the covers clean off easily with a damp paper towel. The pages, oh these pages have seen some flipping but amazingly enough, none of them are ripped. Pegging an average selling price is almost impossible; I have seen it at Barnes & Noble for about $8.99 but online you can find it for a lot less if you are willing to weed through the listings.

The Bottom Line

Is this worth five to ten dollars? In my honest opinion it certainly is. There are so many things that it can teach a child that it's amazing. This is part of the "I Can Read It All By Myself Beginner Books" series; that is a slight stretch because there are some words that kids just aren't going to know or be familiar with. Even if there is a drawing or illustration of it, it's in "Seuss form" so they might not know exactly what it is. Reading this to a child and when they get older, reading it with them is an awesome experience. My brood are all out of the Dr Seuss stage of reading but they still remember this book and some of the funny things in it. I know that when they have kids of their own [many, many years from now] chances are they'll drag out the Dr. Seuss books and start their own brood off with Dr. Seuss's ABC book.


As always, thanks for the visit…

~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~

© 2007 Freak369


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