Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

Well today is Dr. Seuss' birthday. I would like to say that I know this information because I am knowledgeable about the formation of children's literature in our country . . . but that's not the reason! Lately the girls have discovered and fallen in love with the PBS cartoons - Martha Speaks, Super Why, Clifford, and of course, The Cat in the Hat. So in searching the library yesterday for books related to these cartoons I learned that ALL of the Dr. Seuss books were missing because of the celebrations taking place in classrooms today for his birthday!

***A side note about why I love our town . . . we have the largest Children's Library I have ever seen. On top of that we have 3 fabulous librarians that work only in the kid's library. They develop wonderful programs and have age separated and family story times almost every day of the week. We go on Mondays for family story time, Tuesdays Marlie goes for 4-5 yr old story time where she goes by herself and then they do a special craft, and then the 1st Thursday of the month at 7pm we go as a family in our pj's for pajama story time. It's fabulous . . . and when I couldn't find the Dr. Seuss books yesterday, Miss Jean gave me 2 of her books from her personal collection and just said to bring them back and put them on her desk when we were done - they aren't library books, they're hers! This library will be the #1 thing I think I will miss about Clarksville whenever we leave***

Back to Dr. Seuss . . . so today is his birthday and in honor of that we watched a few episodes of The Cat in the Hat marathon this morning before heading to the museum and the park . . .



And I also joined the Dr. Seuss and Friends book club for the girls. We will get 9 Dr. Seuss books, a free backpack, and a free tote bag shipped to us in the next few days . . . and then the girls will have all of the classic Dr. Seuss books - and since it was his birthday, we got all 9 for $13!!! And then of course I'll cancel the membership once the books arrive because if you haven't looked lately, Dr. Seuss is a spendy author! :) It's called working the system!

I think it's also Read across America day too . . . in recognition of that, I will make this confession. I really don't like to read. Let me clarify - I like to read for information. I enjoy reading non-fiction books and articles on topics that I want to learn about or find interesting. I don't read fiction books for fun - for that, I would rather watch a tv show. But somehow, maybe in my unconscious effort to make sure I don't pass that on to my children, I have 2 daughters who would love nothing more than to sit and read stories all day long!!!! We have to back bedtime up so that we have enough time to read books . . . .they negotiate to see how many books they can sleep with in their bed . . . and if they can pick one thing to take in the car, it's almost always a book . . . but it's a good thing . . . . unless you don't so much like reading and you are the primary reader for your kids! ha!! I have learned to find joy in the act of storytime rather than the actual reading part though . . . .

So Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss - I think we have aptly celebrated this day in your honor - and I'm sure I will read some more of your literature before the day is done . . . now if only I could figure out why I never remember as a child listening to Green Eggs and Ham and realizing that it was 60 pages long?!?!?!?!! :)

1 comment:

Tina. said...

Totally loved this post. Books are so amazing. I have the only warm, fuzzy memories from childhood related to books. And when I became an awkward adolescent they were there to comfort me and transport me somewhere else. Ahhhh.