Not Quite So Wordless Wednesday


Ted Geisel, American writer and cartoonist, at...                                    Image via WikipediaToday is the birthday of Dr. Seuss, born Theodor Geisel. He published his first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, in 1937. In 1955, he was asked if he would write a book to help children learn how to read. Seuss was given a list of 300 words that most first-graders knew. He had to write a book using only those words. Seuss wasn't sure he could do it, but as he looked over the list, two words jumped out at him: "cat" and "hat." The book is 1,702 words long, but it uses only 220 different words. Later, Seuss's publisher bet him $50 that he could not write a book using only 50 different words. Dr. Seuss won the bet with Green Eggs and Ham. There is exactly 50 different words. And "anywhere" is the only one with more than one syllable.


2 comments:

Yippee! You came to talk to me. Thanks.
You know how special that makes me feel?
Like I swallowed the moon and the stars and I just shine now!