My friend Luisa blogged the other day about the "immersion" activities she's using to prepare her family for a trip to France. We're planning a trip to Boston, so we did a pared-down version of her plan, and on the way learned that Dr. Seuss was born in Boston. That, of course, meant we had to pull out Green Eggs and Ham.
While reading aloud, I had fun watching Hammer, age 12, and Buffy, age 10, revisit the book with new eyes—and love it in a new way. They laughed out loud at the silly rhymes and stopped me so they could study the funny expressions on the characters' faces. Dr. Seuss's bio said that he'd taken a bet that he couldn't write a book using only 50 words. So Buffy and I went through the whole book, writing down each new word as it occurred: 49 total, if we counted right.
It happens that I'd recently spent a minute or two mourning the passing of the old Green Eggs days. But when a kid becomes a seasoned old critic of 12 or 43, it turns out Green Eggs is still waiting patiently to be rediscovered—and loved all over again.
Dr. Seuss is so awesome. And I'm flattered; thanks.
ReplyDeleteYou are going to have a great time in Boston! It's a terrific city. I highly recommend the JFK Presidential Library. Oh! And Speed's Famous Hot Dog Wagon in Newmarket Square. Mmmmmmm....
My husband proposed to me with a copy of Green Eggs and Ham. He used sticky notes over the words and wrote his own, including Tim-it's-Him who was trying to talk the main character into marrying me, though he kept protesting, "It is not yet time to marry Kim."
ReplyDeleteFor one brief moment I thought I was being dumped...
Seuss is timeless and ageless both.