Critical Evaluation
Crisis in Children's Literacy
THE CAT IN THE HAT was written in response to a crisis in children's literacy in the United States. It was a time in our history when we were competing with the Soviet Union on many levels and one way in particular was in our educational system. The question educators and policy makers were facing was how to make our children (future scientists and leaders) as smart as the Soviet children. The Soviets were apparently winning the space race and subsequent arms development race. While in this competitive stance, the issue of children's illiteracy became a national scandal after the release of a popular book, by Rudolph Flesch called, Why Can't Johnny Read. Some people blamed the advent of television, others the popularity of comic books. But in 1954, a novelist named John Hersey who had served on a school board council blamed the reading primer. In an article which appeared in LIFE magazine (a widely read periodical) Hersey attacked the school primer. His article "Why Do Students Bog Down on First R?" described the contents of these book s as "antiseptic little sugar-books". He used words like "uniform," "bland" and " terribly literal" to condemn their use in schools. He challenged educators to do better.
The Birth of the Cat
A response to the challenge came from
Houghton Mifflin's education division. The editor was a friend of Ted Geisel.
He approached Geisel to write a book in the Dr. Seuss style while still working from a
selected word list. Like the Dick and Jane books this book's vocabulary
could consist of
only 225 pre-determined words suitable to decoding by a first
or second grade student. Geisel accepted the challenge, he
describes it as an arduous task in which he reviewed the list over and over
again stymied by the lack of verbs on the list. Finally he happened on the
two words that rhymed, Cat and Hat. Then he married his amazing
illustration with this rhyme and created a book which was dramatically different
from the ones in current use.
This book was anything but uniform or bland and it's literalness took the form of satire. There was a plot children could relate to; two kids sitting at home on a rainy day, incredibly bored. Then, in walks the protagonist (a far cry from Dick and Jane) a lovable trickster who creates suspense, mischief and fun and he gets away with it while mother is out. Further, there are the Seuss illustrations which in contrast to the quiet, muted illustrations in the primer were fanciful cartoons that explode off the pages.
The critics loved it, comparisons were made to Alice in Wonderland and The Wind in the Willows. Schools began to use this as their texts. But it was really the trade version, published by Random House that set THE CAT IN THE HAT apart. Parents were buying this book for their kids.
The Birth of a Series
Ted Geisel and Random House capitalized on the reader's response. They developed a series of easy readers or Beginner Books under the trademark I CAN READ IT ALL BY MYSELF with The Cat as it's logo. In fact many children grew up thinking The Cat was Dr. Seuss. The sequel THE CAT IN THE HAT COMES BACK followed a year later and subsequently other Seuss books followed. They also published other children's authors under the same series, like P.D. Eastman and Stan and Jan Berenstain.
Forty Years Later
It is now forty seven years since the birth of The Cat and it still endures. In some ways it is more popular than ever. Today's parents and educators are the baby boomers that cut their teeth on this book and continue to recommend it to today's young children. The industry also persists in promoting this title. It appears on the Random House Home page with a direct link to "Seussville" the official website of Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. The National Education Association recently revived THE CAT IN THE HAT as a tool to promote children's literacy with it's "Read Across America" campaign. Each year on March 2, elementary schools and libraries across the country celebrate Dr. Seuss and (The Cat's) birthday with school reading nights, parent/ child story hours and other events which feature the writings of Dr. Seuss.
Standing the Test of Time
Ted Geisel believed that writing children's literature was important work. He labored over his craft which he thought of as the beautiful union of pictures and words and was proud to be an author of children's books. However, those who knew him say his legacy was the idea that we can always do better. I suspect that his work will endure until someone does better. And fortunately someone always does.
Self-Portrait of the Artist Worrying About His Next Book
(reproduced in Life Magazine 1959)