On the 50th Birthday of "Green Eggs and Ham"

Philip Nel, the director of the Program in Children's Literature at Kansas State University, is the author of Dr. Seuss: American Icon and an upcoming biography of Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnston, among other books. Nel has also started a blog, Nine Kinds of Pie, and today writes about the 50th birthday of Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham.

Dr. Seuss‘s Green Eggs and Ham is one of the reasons I do this blog, write books, and am an English professor. Nearly forty years ago, Green Eggs and Ham — which turns 50 this month — taught me to read. It also taught me that reading is fun, helping to make me a life-long reader. 

The book didn’t teach me literacy all by itself, of course. My parents read to me. And I watched both Sesame Street and The Electric Company onPBS. But Green Eggs and Ham helped me put what I learned into practice. The poetry and the limited vocabulary were key.

Go, read. Link: "Green Eggs and Ham: A 50-Word Book Turns 50"

Comments

[tanita]

Woot! We were such geeks in college we recited this. Funny to think the book is THAT OLD!

[Susan T.]

Tanita, I know. I KNOW. 50--how can that be?

That is a hoot about y'all reciting Green Eggs and Ham in college. My favorite Dr. Seuss is The Grinch.

[Sam]

I love this book now that I read it with my son. I wasn't so fond of it as a child, when being asked if I like Green Eggs and Ham was one of the banes of my existance. :)

[Susan T.]

I wasn't so fond of Seuss as a kid either---or movies in which people burst into song. Guess I had to grow into my love of the whimsical...