Our Imaginations Ran Loose in the Wonderful World of Dr. Seuss

On the far-away Island of Sala-ma-Sond,

Yertle the Turtle was king of the pond.

A nice little pond. It was clean. It was neat.

The water was warm. There was plenty to eat.

The turtles had everything turtles might need.

And they were all happy. Quite happy indeed.

First, there were fairy tales with princesses and dragons. Then in ran Dick, Jane and their dog Spot.

And then came Dr. Seuss, and creatures like Yertle and “the crumple-horn, web-footed, green-bearded Schlottz whose tail is entailed with unsolvable knots.”

In the days before Seuss, “there were only books for adults and for little adults,” says children’s author E.A. Hass, also known as Dr. Rita Book. Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, “was the first person to show people how to write for children, and as a child. He was able to do this without condescending, without seeing it as dehumanizing. He was able to encourage children to learn to love words, and to encourage parents to learn to love to read to their children.”

“His roly-poly words play with each other,” says Hass, creator of the “Incognito Mosquito” series of young people’s books and, as Dr. Book, a radio and television personality who likes to remind children that “candy is dandy, but a book will never rot your teeth.”

“Finally, with Dr. Seuss, somebody came up with words that were a lot of fun to listen to and a lot of fun to read,” Hass says.

Or, to put it in the words of a 6-year old: “I like the tongue twisters.” Indeed, George Himmel of Silver Lake has 10 Dr. Seuss books. “I like the funny words most of all. And how the cat (in “The Cat in the Hat Comes Back!”) eats cake in the tub. I can’t do that, not even on my birthday.”

Seuss’ characters hopped on pop, ate green eggs and ham and ran the zoo. Very often they ran through the house as in “The Cat in the Hat,” doing naughty things that all children long to do, such as putting the pet goldfish in the teapot.

This kind of permissible defiance was also a first in children’s books, says Alison Lurie, a novelist who is also the author of “Don’t Tell the Grownups,” a book that examines the “subversive” nature of young people’s reading material.

“He frees children’s imaginations. He was the first person to openly say that small children have a right to their private fantasies, even if they are violent or anti-Establishment,” says Lurie, who teaches at Ithaca College. “At the time, this was a rather radical suggestion. It seemed like something new and amazing, but what it was, was a matter of liberating the imagination of children.”

Lurie cited a Seuss classic, “Green Eggs and Ham,” in which a child-sized character named Sam prevails upon a recalcitrant adult to sample a curious-looking plate of food. “Usually we have adults trying to persuade children to eat something that’s good for them. Here it’s all reversed,” Lurie says. “The child is also waking up the adult to the many things in the world around him, pulling him away from the newspaper he is reading.” This theme, says Lurie, is one of “the many subversive messages in Seuss.”

So, Yertle, the Turtle King, lifted his hand

And Yertle, the Turtle King, gave a command.

He ordered nine turtles to swim to his stone

And, using these turtles he built a new throne.

He made each turtle stand on one another’s back

And he piled them all up in a nine-turtle stack.

And then Yertle climbed up. He sat down on the pile.

What a wonderful view! He could see ‘most a mile!

Samantha Calderon, a third-grader at Atwater Avenue Elementary School and the proud owner of eight Dr. Seuss books says it’s “neat” that the two children in “The Cat in the Hat” don’t tell their mother that a tall skinny beast in a striped hat has made a big mess in their home. She loves to read Dr. Seuss books because “they have happy endings even when the characters make big messes like ‘The Cat in the Hat.’ ”

But, as Yertle the Turtle King, lifted his hand

And started to order and give the command,

That plain little turtle below in the stack,

That plain little turtle whose name was just Mack,

Decided he’d taken enough.

And he had.

And that plain little lad got a little bit mad.

And that plain little Mack did a plain little thing.

He burped!

And his burp shook the throne of the king!

Samantha also likes to copy the drawings from his books.

Dr. Seuss’ tremendous imagination enabled him and his works to transcend cultural roadblocks, says author Robert Coles, also a Harvard Medical School instructor and child psychoanalyst. “I have actually read Dr. Seuss, in English, to Spanish-speaking kids. Everyone gets it. There’s no need for translation.”

Maria Reynoso, a pre-kindergarten teacher at Heliotrope Elementary School in Maywood uses Dr. Seuss books in her lessons because “he’s a thousand times better than Dick and Jane. Dr. Seuss really figures into the use of language.”

Reynoso says 90% of her students speak Spanish only. But with Dr. Seuss, she says, there is no language barrier.

“I enjoy reading the books to them in English and then translate them by myself. It’s even funnier in Spanish,” she says. “Three- and 4-year-olds’ attention span is short, but it is extended when we do Dr. Seuss because of the verse and the sound and the pictures.” She says many of her kids have memorized Dr. Seuss in English and Spanish.

Reynoso, the mother of five children ages 21 to 32, says “Dr. Seuss was our first library when money was short and the kids were little. But at the foot of their beds and underneath their pillows was ‘Green Eggs and Ham,’ ‘The Cat in the Hat,’ and ‘The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.’ ”

“Ted Geisel is the only genius I ever knew,” says Robert Bernstein, Seuss’ publisher for many years at Random House. “He was shy, self-effacing and despite his genius, always needed reassurance. His books are amusingly original, and most of the time, have a moral message worth remembering.”

“The message is somewhat the same in all the Seuss books,” says Lurie. “The children in his books don’t actually do anything bad or violent, but they do give way to their imaginations. I think that is why he has been so wonderfully successful, because he allows children a lot of range for their imaginations, but assures them that things really are going to be all right, that in the end the world is going to be a richer and fuller and safe place.”

For Yertle, the King of all Sala-ma-Sond,

fell off his high throne and fell Plunk! in the pond!

And today the great Yertle, that Marvelous he,

Is king of the Mud. That is all he can see.

And the turtles of course . . . all the turtles are free

As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.

We looked! Then we saw him step in on the mat! We looked! And we saw him! The Cat in the Hat! And he said to us, “Why do you sit there like that?” --The Cat in the Hat

Do you like green eggs and ham? I do not like them, Sam-I-am. I do not like green eggs and ham. Would you like them here or there? I would not like them here or there. I would not like them anywhere. --Green Eggs and Ham

He got stuck only once, for a moment or two. Then he stuck his head out of the fireplace flue Where the little Who stockings all hung in a row. “These stockings,” he grinned, “are the first things to go!” --How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

SAY!: We liked the Cat, Yertle and Horton too! The Grinch, Lorax, and even the Who. We would read them in a car We would read them on a star We would read them here and there We would read them ANYWHERE! We liked Dr. Seuss and green eggs and ham Thank you! Thank you, for Sam-I-am!

Times staff writers Elizabeth Mehren, Michael Quintanilla and Beverly Beyette contributed to this story.