[00:00.00]NARRATOR: Listen to part of a lecture in a children's literature class.
[00:06.31]MALE PROFESSOR: Today we’ll start looking at the most important children's book authors of the twentieth century. [00:11.47]And I'd like to start with an author-illustrator whom some of you probably grew up reading: Dr. Seuss…
[00:17.85]His actual name was Theodor Seuss Geisel. [00:22.04]Geisel's work was hugely popular among beginning readers and their parents, but it wasn't always considered “literature” or subjected to serious academic inquiry until relatively recently. [00:35.24]In fact, not only weren't his books considered literature, but they weren't always considered good schoolbooks.
[00:43.42]In the late-1950s and even through the '60s, U.S. teachers resisted Seuss books because they perceived them as having a comic-book style—fun, maybe, but not… uh, not appropriate for the classroom.
[00:57.45]None of Geisel’s books individually won him a Pulitzer Prize, [01:01.36]and he didn't receive any top children's literary awards, either. [01:05.23]Although the Pulitzer Prize Committee did give him a citation in 1984 for his, ah,“special contribution over nearly half a century to the education and enjoyment of America's children and their parents.” [01:18.82]But again, that wasn’t until 1984.
[01:22.68]Perhaps one reason his books weren’t taken seriously is that even though they often use rhyme, you wouldn’t call him a great poet. [01:30.40]Geisel's rhyme schemes are very simple,[01:33.01] and often, to make things rhyme, he'd use silly names for his imaginary creatures—like, uh, the “Grinch” and “sneetches.” [01:41.48]In fact, one book features 34 pairs of rhymed words, but only eight of those pairs consist entirely of real words. [01:50.70]The rest are made-up words.
[01:53.46]Geisel also illustrated his own books and created lots of highly memorable characters from a visual standpoint. [02:00.37]Yet, as far as his artistic talent, no one's ever really called him a “great” artist or “great” illustrator.
[02:07.31]For his human characters, he pretty much drew the same face over and over; [02:12.09]except for minor accessories, all the people in his books look the same. [02:15.96]Not exactly something you'd be encouraged to do in art school! [02:20.17]And the way he drew even nonhuman characters was dismissed by many critics as being overly simplistic. [02:26.93]His landscapes, on the other hand, they are simple, but they're also extremely clever. [02:32.27]He had this uncanny knack for creating the illusion of great distance with some very simple shapes and lines. [02:39.45]But what about from a pedagogical standpoint?
[02:42.51]Well, let’s consider Geisel's most famous book, The Cat in the Hat. Now, in a way, this book, The Cat in the Hat, captures the essence of Geisel’s particular genius as a children's author. [02:55.40]Geisel actually wrote it in response to an article written in 1954 by an acclaimed novelist named John Hersey. [03:04.38]In this article, Hersey criticized the textbooks being used in elementary schools, uh, to teach children to read. [03:12.33]He called the books boring, contrived, and utterly humorless. [03:16.43]After seeing Hersey's article, Geisel must’ve wondered what made the books so dull. [03:21.71]And one thing he found was… they used only words from the Dolch list.[03:26.97]The Dolch list contained a few hundred common sight words—words like, well, “cat” and “hat.” [03:33.85]At the time, the Dolch list was widely adhered to by publishers of textbooks for beginning readers.
[03:41.32]Well, using only words from the Dolch list, Geisel tapped into his fertile imagination, [03:47.42]and…the result was an incredibly funny and engaging storyline about a talking cat that convinces a brother and sister to let him make a huge mess in their house while their mother is away. [04:00.16]Another character, a talking fish, tries to warn the children that they'll be blamed for the cat's crazy antics.
[04:07.15]You can really feel the tension building up in those kids as the cat makes the house messier and messier. [04:13.48]Ultimately, the house gets straightened up in the nick of time. [04:16.53]And the kids are left speechless when their mom shows up and casually asks if anything interesting happened in her absence. [04:24.07]The kids, and presumably Geisel's readers, are left thinking: Should they tell the truth? [04:30.91]And that's where the book ends.
[04:33.90]Brilliant. There aren't too many authors who can set up a moral dilemma like this and then get children to think about it for themselves.
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