The 25 Most Popular Books by Dr. Seuss

One day in class, Mayzie sprouts a daisy from her head. She doesn’t know why it happened or what can be done. An agent makes her a celebrity, but the Cat in the Hat, who serves as narrator, persuades her to go home. She eventually understands her problem, and the daisy goes away. But it does pop up on occasion. (The book was published after Dr. Seuss’s death.)

Known more for his literary works and rhyming poetry, Dr. Seuss was also an accomplished illustrator. In 1931, he contributed art for a book, “Bоners.” (Don’t get upset: The term means “bloopers.”) The bloopers came from unintentionally funny answers from youngsters. One example: “King Arthur collected all the fine brave good-looking young men of his time and called them the Knuts of the Round Table.”

“Fox in Socks” tells the story of a fox and a creature called Knox. The fox tries to get Knox to say a series of tongue twisters, but the yellow creature cannot. Angered, Knox puts the fox in a bottle with the final words – a “tweetle beetle noodle poodle bottled paddled muddled duddled fuddled wuddled fox in socks.”

Set in a feudal kingdom, a young boy, Bartholomew Cubbins, angers the king when every time he takes off his hat in deference to the ruler another hat appears on his head. King Derwin of Didd has the boy thrown in a tower. But in exchange for the 500 hats that have materialized, Bartholomew is given 500 gold coins and freed. Unlike most of his works, Dr. Suess wrote this book in prose, not rhymes or metered verse.

Young Marco has been fishing in McElligot’s pool when a farmer tells him no fish can be caught there. Instead of giving up, Marco uses his imagination to think of all the fish he could catch, like Circus Fish, Dog Fish, and Eskimo Fish “from beyond Hudson Bay” – the last of these considered problematic, leading to the book going out of print – if he is patient. The theme of the book is never to limit a child’s imagination.