By Dr. Seuss (Random House/Harper Collins Children’s Books)
ISBN: 978-0-00717-024-1, 978-0-00736-554-8, 978-0-00717-304-4
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Perfect. Just Perfect… 10/10
The son of a wealthy beermaker of German origins, Theodore Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield Massachusetts on March 2nd 1894. Some years later, he attended Dartmouth College, where he edited the college magazine, before graduating in 1925 – despite a few narrow escapes from the opprobrious oversight of college authorities. Geisel liked to party and preferred drawing to his studies. It was apparently how he got his penname: after the Dean banned him from drawing after a particularly raucous binge, the young artist took pains to sign his work only with his middle name…
Theodore studied English Literature at Lincoln College, Oxford in 1927, where he met his first wife Helen. Upon returning to America he became a cartoonist and illustrator, doing spot gags, political panels and covers for a variety of publishers. His weekly strip Birdsies and Beasties appeared in prestigious humour magazine Judge and other work was seen in Life, Vanity Fair, The Saturday Evening Post, Liberty and PM among others. He even briefly – in 1935 – produced a newspaper strip (“Hejji”) and tried his hand at animation and advertising. During WWII Geisel turned to political cartooning, advocating a strong response to the Fascist threat. In 1943 he enlisted as a lead animator and director for the US Army: winning an award in 1947 for documentary Design For Death exploring Japanese cultural history.
Geisel published his first poem/cartoon book And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street in 1937, but only truly and gradually became a literary god after the war when news reports about relative illiteracy and lack of vocabulary in young children (particularly a damning report in Life from May 1954) led him to create a string of easy-reading books like The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, Gerald McBoing-Boing, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Horton Hears a Who! and 38 others before his death in 1991.
In 1957 he released the How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Yuletide evergreen was soon (1966) immortalized in a brilliant Chuck Jones animated short and latterly so-so big budget movies. Over and above any of these, the actual book still towers as a masterpiece of cartoon fiction and one I beg you to read if you already haven’t. If you’re one of the three westerners who still don’t know the story… The Grinch is a mean hermit who, for no apparent reason, loathes everything about the whole Christmas Season. So, one X-Mas Eve he creeps into all Who-houses in nearby Who hamlet and nicks every trinket that Christmas espouses. No Trees, Tinsel, Presents or Tasty Treats are left: the nasty old codger has left Who-ville bereft.
But just at the moment when his triumph is paramount the Grinch sees what Christmas is actually all about. Heart bursting with joy and good feelings re-surging, Grinch returns all the treats he was wickedly purging and joins Who-ville’s people in their grand feast – and even shares some of their glorious Roast Beast!
Seriously though; the simple heart-warming tale of the old monster – and his trusty, long-suffering and illogically faithful hound – as they fail to ruin Christmas, the miraculous change of heart and eventual redemption is the perfect examination of what the Season should mean. And let me be clear here: it’s people not the festival he truly found fault with…
Moreover, it’s written in a captivating manner with bold rhyme and incredibly enthralling artwork that embeds itself deep inside every reader. Wily, wise and wonderful, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is absolutely the best kid’s Christmas book ever created, and one you simple have to read. If your house has kids (or not) but no copy, it must be brought up to code immediately and forthwith.
Doctor’s orders… so don’t make me put coal in your socks…
© 1957, 2016 Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. All rights reserved