Growing up with Dr. Seuss

      There aren’t many items that I have from my childhood, I have more memories than keepsakes. I can think of a million blankets, toys, pictures and books that I would have loved to keep just so I could have something look at and take me back. Not much comes close to the bittersweet feeling of nostalgia. First you feel it dancing in your tummy, then the feeling moves up to your heart, and then like a wildfire the nostalgia spreads all over. Out of the few items that I have kept, one of my favorites has to be my collection of hard cover Dr. Seuss books. I have always been a crazy big fan of bedtime stories, and I still am! What makes my Dr. Seuss book collection special to me would be all of the memories within the collection.

      One reason why my collection is so special to me is because some of the main people that have influenced my life growing up have given me one of my Dr. Seuss books. The fact that I will always be able to think of them whenever I read their books makes me so happy. Another favorite memory behind the books is that they were always the perfect gift especially spontaneous gifts. Maybe only half of them were Christmas and birthday presents. The rest of them were just because I love you presents. For as long as I can remember “Green Eggs and Ham” was my die hard favorite book, and because he saw how much I loved it, it became my brothers favorite book as well. In fact we loved it so much one Sunday morning my brother and I were downstairs in the living room watching morning cartoons when our dad had brought us out our breakfast of actual green eggs and ham! All he did was added some food coloring to our scrambled eggs and ham, but I can tell you that it meant the world to us and that was definitely not the last time when ate green eggs and ham. Adding on to my collection of memories, my Dr. Seuss books helped me learn how to read. Every night of the week before I was tucked into bed my parents would let me pick one of my Dr. Seuss books to read. Every night a different book, another favorite, another memory.

Achievements and Awards

      Through the ins and outs of his illustrating and writing career, Geisel stayed committed and kept focused. He worked his hardest and the world noticed. Every illustration, every animation, and every thought always received 200% of his effort. Just like his work, Theodore Seuss Geisel would go above and beyond to create something wonderful. Geisel left a great impact on generations of children. Those children to someday have children of their own where the art of Dr. Seuss would fill their homes with laughter and joy again. Little did he know, Dr. Seuss was going to impact much more than the continuous cycle of families and children, he impacted the world.

      Theodore Seuss Geisel has been awarded with many achievements for his hard work and dedication to his art. In 1948 Geisel was awarded the Caldecott Medal for “McElligot’s Pool”, and later on again back-to-back in 1950 “Bartholomew and the Oobleck” and 1951 “If I Ran the Zoo.” Geisel also received the Peabody award in 1970 with “Horton Hears a Who!” Another achievement of Geisel’s was being awarded the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children’s Special in 1978 for his short film “Halloween is Grinch Night”. Following his first Emmy a couple years later Theodore Seuss Geisel was awarded the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal in 1980. In 1982 Geisel was awarded the Regina Medal as well as his second Primetime Emmy Award, this time in the category of Outstanding Animated Program (for Programing Less Than One Hour). He also won the Pulitzer Prize Special Citations and Awards in 1984.

      The work of Theodore Seuss Geisel will continue to move and inspire each and every day. We will forever remember him in our hearts as Dr. Seuss.

Never Give Up!

      Growing up I have learned that actions speak louder than words. If someday you happen to fall in love with a special someone don’t tell him or her how much you love them, show them, because actions speak louder than words. When you have a dream and you want that dream more than the world itself, you cant just ask for it nicely, you have to work hard and do whatever it takes to chase your dream. Why, because actions speak louder than words.  This lesson has helped me countless times, and even more so after graduating high school.

      Dr. Seuss has taught children many great lessons and values through his stories. It is okay to step out of your comfort zone and try new things like in his book “Green Eggs and Ham.” Also in “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” Dr. Seuss teaches us that life has much more than ups and downs. He teaches us that life is a journey and the only way to fully experience life is to ride it out. Before he taught anyone any of those lessons, and before any of those books were even thought up of, Dr. Seuss was busy showing those who were watching just how actions indeed speak louder than words.

      Dr. Seuss’ first children’s book to ever be published was “And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street.” However getting his first children’s book published was not an easy task; not even for a popular cartoonist and ad man such as himself. His book “And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street” was rejected twenty-seven times by different publishing companies before Vanguard Press finally published it in1937. Imagine if Dr. Seuss would have given up and remained Theodore Seuss Geisel magazine illustrator. It shouldn’t matter if you fail once or even twenty-seven times, because failure doesn’t define you. To get back up, brush yourself off, and tell yourself to try again means so much more. So work hard for what you want and never give up, because actions speak louder than words. Do what you love and live a life that you love, because actions will always speak louder than words.

Mini Bio: Dr. Seuss

Who is Dr. Seuss?

      Many of us know him as a famous children’s book author, some of us know him as an illustrator, his is name is Dr. Seuss. He has shaped and influenced the childhood of many generations through his creative works of art, but where did it all begin?

      Dr. Seuss was born on March 2^nd in 1904 as Theodore “Ted” Seuss Geisel. Geisel attended school at Dartmouth College, an Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire. It was in college at Dartmouth when Geisel was involved with the campus humor magazine as editor in chief. While still attending Dartmouth College Geisel was removed from the school magazine comity due to the violation of school and prohibition laws. Being removed from the magazine wasn’t enough to stop Geisel. Theodore Seuss Geisel continued to add his own contributions to the campus humor magazine under the name “Seuss.” After graduating from Dartmouth Geisel attended Oxford University in England for graduate school with the goal to pursue his doctrine in literature (Dr. Seuss). Instead Geisel met Helen Palmer while attending Oxford and his plans changed. The two got married in 1927, Geisel dropped out from Oxford, and they both moved back to the United States.

      Once Geisel moved back to the states he then started to focus on his career as an illustrator. Geisel’s cartoons where published in popular magazines and articles such as Life, Vanity Fair, and The Saturday Evening Post. Cartooning opened up a new world of opportunities for Geisel. He became and ad man, starting with oil ads in magazines and moving onto other products. In the works was his first children’s book “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” which was published in 1937 under his pen name Seuss. After releasing his first children’s book Geisel began to contribute to magazines once again, but this time illustrating political cartoons for World War II. Post WWII Mr. & Mrs. Theodore Seuss Geisel packed up and moved from coast to coast landing them in La Jolla, California. Living in California Geisel picked up where he left off and continued to create children’s books as Dr. Seuss. Theodore Seuss Geisel diseased at age 87 on September 24, 1991 in La Jolla, California. His magic will continue to go on, and he will still be inside the hearts of many children and their families.

A Few Facts About Dr. Seuss