Theodor Seuss Geisel didn’t receive his famous name “Dr. Seuss” from getting a degree in medicine. He was however given an honorary doctorate from his alma mater back in 1956 from Dartmouth. Ted chose the name “Dr.” because of his father’s desire to become a doctor. He started using the name Seuss in college, thus, the penname Dr. Seuss was born.
Seuss was born in 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. After years of creating content for magazines, book publishers, and advertising agencies, he finally had his first literature published. In 1937, after being rejected 27 times, “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” was published by the Vanguard Press. That was just the beginning to the legacy of the Dr. Seuss children’s series.
March 2 is Dr. Seuss’s birthday. On that day schools and libraries celebrate in communities by bringing kids together to read his books. Seussville.com even has a birthday educator guide so people can find different ways to get their kids to read.
Rexburg’s Madison Library joined in on the celebrating and had its own displays out for kids to check out Dr. Seuss’s birthday. Gina Miller is the youth services librarian at the Madison Library.
“Well happy birthday Dr. Seuss! Here at the library we love Dr. Seuss because he rhymes, has so many great colors, and just appeals to so many different ages,” she said.
Kids aren’t the only ones who love his books. Miller said her favorite book is the “Grinch Who Stole Christmas.” William Johnson is a program assistant for the library and even he had a favorite book.
“My favorite Dr. Seuss is one of his lesser-known books called ‘I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew,’ it’s basically a guy goes on this long journey and encounters all sorts of misfortunes and finally realizes that nowhere is perfect and he ends up going back to deal with all of his problems,” he said.
Lessons from these books aren’t just for kids to learn how to read, they also teach lifelong lessons for people of all ages. Johnson told me an experience he had on his mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the impact that Dr. Seuss had while he was serving.
“I actually had a friend, a mission companion from my mission, he carried around a copy of ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ and he had all of his mission companions sign it,” he said. “It’s just a universal thing and it appeals to everybody and its wonderful and I think that’s what makes it such enduring classics right here is what makes Dr Seuss, he’s just immortal.”
Kids all over in school will be celebrating him this week. You canclick here to go to Seussville to find fun activities guides to celebrate Seuss’s birthday and find his books.