I was reading a bio of him on Writer's Almanac (check out the March 2 entry) and came across a quote that I had not seen before. He said, "Writing for children is murder. A chapter has to be boiled down to a paragraph. Every word has to count."
Apparently, Dr. Seuss spent nine months writing the Cat in the Hat. I'm not surprised at all. It is true that shorter books for younger children often take more time to write than longer manuscripts. What did surprise me, however, was how well it sold. Here's another quote from the article: "Within a year of publication, The Cat in the Hat was selling 12,000 copies a month; within five years, it had sold a million copies." Wow! That is impressive.
Today, I have been trying to pick my favourite Dr. Seuss story and it is not an easy choice. One of the books I read again and again (both for myself and my children) was Bartholomew and the Oobleck (remember the great gobs of green goo that fell from the sky?) But there are many other wonderful stories, too.
Which one is your favourite?
Happy Birthday, and thank you, Dr. Seuss!
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