The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss

This is probably one of Dr. Seuss's most memorable pieces of work. It was written in 1957 after an article was written in Life magazine by a man named John Hersey. The article focused on the problems associated with children's literature and the readers used in public schools at that time. Hersey presented the idea that schools should use readers that have pictures that "widen rather than narrow the associative richness children give to the words they illustrate."

Dr. Seuss took this idea into his own hands and saw it as a challenge that he would work on. Nine months later he had completed the famous book called The Cat in the Hat. This story has so many clever elements. First of all, it is a very catchy story line with interesting characters to excite any child. This story also uses 236 distinct sight words to teach children phonics through rhyme and repitition. This book not only uses sophisticated rhyme and rhythm, but it also manages to keep the vocabulary simple enough for young readers.

This book was revolutionary to its time and remains a favorite among children to this day. This is probably because of the tension between the fun of the imagination and the anarchy of the main character himself. There are not many books that come to mind that truly have the wit and tension that this book contains. However, the closest book to having this type of tension happens to be from Dr. Seuss himself and that is the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas. In this particular story the Grinch is the anarachist character who is constantly doing wrong throughout the story. His goal in life is to make others miserable but then, just as the Cat comes around in the end of the story to do right, he too comes to the conclusion that he doesn't want to behave badly anymore. His heart warms up and he actually tries to do good.