Bringing with him two creatures appropriately named Thing One and Thing Two, the Cat performs all sorts of wacky tricks to amuse the children, with mixed results. In the first book featuring the character ( The Cat in the Hat, 1957), the Cat brings a cheerful, exotic and exuberant form of chaos to a household of two young children one rainy day while their mother is out. killing phonics was one of the greatest causes of illiteracy in the country.' The Cat in the Hat Seuss also regretted the association of his book and the 'look say' reading method adopted during the Dewey revolt in the 1920s. He added that the title for the book came from his desire to have the title rhyme and the first two suitable rhyming words that he could find from the list were 'cat' and 'hat'. Seuss claimed the book took nine months to complete due to the difficulty in writing a book from the 223 selected words. In an interview he gave in Arizona magazine in June 1981, Dr. His publisher supplied him with the sight vocabulary of 223 words, one that was in harmony with the words the child would be learning in school. Seuss responded to this 'challenge,' and began work. Why should not have pictures that widen rather than narrow the associative richness the children give to the words they illustrate - drawings like those of the wonderfully imaginative geniuses among children's illustrators, Tenniel, Howard Pyle, 'Dr. After detailing many issues contributing to the dilemma connected with student reading levels, Hersey asked toward the end of the article: Hersey's arguments were enumerated over ten pages of Life Magazine, which was the leading periodical during that time. Given incentive from school boards, publishers could do as well with primers. In bookstores, anyone can buy brighter, livelier books featuring strange and wonderful animals and children who behave naturally, i.e., sometimes misbehave. feature abnormally courteous, unnaturally clean boys and girls. In the classroom boys and girls are confronted with books that have insipid illustrations depicting the slicked-up lives of other children.

Seuss, created The Cat in the Hat in response to the Life magazine article by John Hersey, titled 'Why Do Students Bog Down on First R? A Local Committee Sheds Light on a National Problem: Reading.' In the article, Hersey was critical of school primers: Seuss Favorites, this book is featured after Green Eggs and Ham. Seuss Beginner Book Video' featuring ' Maybe You Should Fly a Jet! Maybe You Should Be a Vet!' This book was also used in the Random House Home Video Series which entitles 'Dr.

13 Video Book, which also includes Maybe You Should Fly a Jet! Maybe You Should Be a Vet!.

12 Goofs, Errors, and Corrections of the book and video.

6 The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library.

The cat in the hat comes back