The 25 Most Popular Books by Dr. Seuss

An unnamed young boy is having quite the wacky day. When he wakes up, he sees a shoe on the wall and the ceiling. He goes to school and even more wacky things – 20 in total – happen. He also sees a bird in a shoe, and the sun colored green. When he tries to warn his teacher and classmates they don’t believe him. A patrolman tells him it will all end when all the wacky things have been counted.

One of two Seuss books written for adults, “The Seven Lady Godivas” re-tells the legend of Lady Godiva, the wife of an English earl who rode through the streets naked to protest excessive taxes. When a man – now remembered as “Peeping Tom” – snuck a look at her, he was struck blind. In the Seuss version, there are seven naked sisters and their lovers. After the death of their father on a horse, the sisters vow to postpone their marriages until they uncover all noble horse truths. This leads to a bevy of horse idioms, such as “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” and “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” Considered a flop in 1939, the book was republished in 1987, but again failed.

A young boy named Peter T. Hopper loves eggs. But not the kind that comes from hens. Instead, he travels the world collecting eggs from odd birds, like the Shade-Roosting Quail and the Grickly Gactus, to find the best tasting scrambled eggs. (This is one of the Dr. Seuss titles no longer being published)

In On Beyond Zebra, Seuss through a young narrator invents a whole new bunch of letters of the alphabet beyond the traditional 26. Each letter corresponds to a fantastical creature. For example, HUMPF is a Humpf-Humpf-a-Dumpfer and Fuddle is Miss Fuddle-dee-Duddle. (Problematic imagery has taken this title out of the publication roster.)

Written for very young children, “Hop on Pop” introduces toddlers to rhymes, such as “hop” and “pop,” “cup” and “pup,” and “mouse” and “house.” In 2013, the Toronto Public Library received a complaint about the book, saying it promoted violence against fathers. The library decided against removing what it considered a humorous and well-loved children’s book.