Book review: "A Hatful of Seuss: Five Favorite Dr. Seuss Stories"

Here's a rare book that gives you more than it promises. While it's titled "Five Favorite Dr. Seuss Stories," you actually get EIGHT stories. That's because there's three extra ones ("The Zax," "Too Many Daves," and "What Was I Scared Of?") included with "The Sneetches and Other Stories."

It's hard to say enough good things about this book. You have a collection of delightful stories, fun wordplay ("I'll go to the far-away mountains of Tobsk / Near the river of Nobsk, and I'll bring back an obsk"), nice life lessons ("A person's a person no matter how small"), and some of the most imaginative artwork anywhere. I enjoy these as much as my kids (ages 3 and a half, and 2).

The only negative I can think of is that the book is rather large for a child to easily rest on his or her lap. If you're reading to your child, that's less of an issue.

If I HAD to pick, I'd say that "Sneetches" is our household's favorite story in this collection, followed by "Horton Hears a Who." But occasionally we'll opt for one of the others. It's good to have a selection of stories, because kids' interests change and they can suddenly decide a different one is the one they want to hear all the time.

Most of these stories are good for reading to your kids right from birth, because the rhyming play and colorful pictures are fun no matter the level of comprehension. The one exception is "Bartholomew and the Oobleck," which is a bit more involved story that is probably best for ages five and up.



---

(Please support this blog by clicking on an ad, or by donating via the Paypal button below.)