Cloudland High and Cloudland Elementary schools celebrated the birthday of Dr. Seuss on March 2. A group of Cloudland High seniors visited Cloudland Elementary and read Dr. Seuss books to the students. “It was hard to tell which group enjoyed the readings more, the students of CES or CHS,” said Principal Lisa Benfield.
Josie Carnett and Chloe Roberts read “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” to a group of young students. When Carnett commented that a character in the book had a crazy looking beard, a young boy replied, “His beard looks like my Uncle Clifton!” Another student said, “Mr. Seuss was really good at drawing!”
Although Kegan Fields wasn’t reading a Grinch book, one first grader told Fields, “I’m going to call you the Grinch!”
When students were shown an illustration of a Jibboo in “Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!,” one student asked, “Is that Spock from Star Trek?”
When Payton Johnson and Patricia Singleton were reading “Green Eggs and Ham,” they asked students, “Would you eat green eggs and ham with a goat?” One student replied, “NO! It would eat my hair!”
Perhaps one first grader summed the experience up best when he said, “You’re really lucky you can read big words. I want to read big words!”
Theodor Seuss Geisel, from Bavaria (a part of modern-day Germany), shortened his name to Dr. Seuss in 1928. In Bavaria, his name was pronounced Zoice. However, most Americans pronounce the name Soose.
Geisel was more interested in telling a good story than he was in telling a true story. He became quite famous for writing children’s books.
People often asked Dr. Seuss where he got his ideas. Since Seuss wasn’t sure himself, he tended to invent answers. As he told one such questioner: “This is the most asked question of any successful author. Most authors will not disclose their source for fear that other, less successful authors will chisel in on their territory. However, I am willing to take that chance. I get all my ideas in Switzerland, near the Forka Pass.
“There is a little town called Gletch, and two thousand feet up above Gletch there is a smaller hamlet called Uber Gletch. I go there on the fourth of August every summer to get my cuckoo clock repaired. While the cuckoo is in the hospital, I wander around and talk to the people in the streets. They are very strange people, and I get my ideas from them.”
Certainly, Dr. Suess was as imaginative as any of his characters.