I have such fond memories of reading his books. My mom and dad used to read to me before I went to bed. I remember when I was little (pre-first grade) that I would constantly ask my mom or dad to read either a Dr. Seuss book or one of the many Barenstein Bears books that I had. At the time, I don't think I knew what it was about them that I loved - other than the funny littly stories themselves. There are articles on the Internet about how his books provided great moral lessons for children. I don't recall really learning anything. Although I'm sure I did glean the value of fun, sharing and caring from his books as much as I did from Mr. Rogers.
That's what makes writers like Dr. Seuss so fantastic. They made reading and learning fun. I'm sure I learned something but I had no idea I was learning anything at all. Did he know that's what he was doing? I suppose he did. For me it was all about the story and the time.
Oh, the time.
That's what I loved. I loved that time before I went to bed when my parents would read to me. I have such great memories of my dad (mostly) reading to me from any book I would choose. Some nights I had so much reading with him that I would ask him to read 2 or 3 books.
I think I loved it because the simple language made it easy to read along. Once I started to learn to read I would read along with my dad. Once I learned how to read, instead of mom or dad reading to me before bed, I would read to them.
Dr. Seuss taught me to read.
Dr. Seuss is the reason that, even today, I love to read. Once I learned there was just no stopping me. I moved on from have mom or dad read me small rhyming books to big books and tales like Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland and Winnie the Pooh. I couldn't wait to go to bed to see what would happen in these books each night.
As I got older, my love of reading grew. I seem to have less time now for leisurely reading but I still love curling up with a good book and seeing what tonight's tale will be.
"Oh, the places you'll go! There is fun to be done!
There are points to be scored. there are games to be won.
And the magical things you can do with that ball
will make you the winning-est winner of all."
Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss
and
Thank You
Kat, what a wonderful post! I loved it so much I linked to you in my post today (which coincidentally was also about Dr. Seuss!)
ReplyDeleteThis post brought back memories for me too. I used to love to read aloud when I was a kid and we all know how annoying that can be! My friend had all of these books so I was very happy!
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