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The Sneetches And, What Was I Scared Of?

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51 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

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107 people want to read

About the author

Dr. Seuss

986 books18.4k followers
Also wrote as Theodore Seuss Geisel, see https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Theodor Seuss Geisel was born 2 March 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He graduated Dartmouth College in 1925, and proceeded on to Oxford University with the intent of acquiring a doctorate in literature. At Oxford he met Helen Palmer, who he wed in 1927. He returned from Europe in 1927, and began working for a magazine called Judge, the leading humor magazine in America at the time, submitting both cartoons and humorous articles for them. Additionally, he was submitting cartoons to Life, Vanity Fair and Liberty. In some of his works, he'd made reference to an insecticide called Flit. These references gained notice, and led to a contract to draw comic ads for Flit. This association lasted 17 years, gained him national exposure, and coined the catchphrase "Quick, Henry, the Flit!"

In 1936 on the way to a vacation in Europe, listening to the rhythm of the ship's engines, he came up with And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, which was then promptly rejected by the first 43 publishers he showed it to. Eventually in 1937 a friend published the book for him, and it went on to at least moderate success.

During World War II, Geisel joined the army and was sent to Hollywood. Captain Geisel would write for Frank Capra's Signal Corps Unit (for which he won the Legion of Merit) and do documentaries (he won Oscar's for Hitler Lives and Design for Death). He also created a cartoon called Gerald McBoing-Boing which also won him an Oscar.

In May of 1954, Life published a report concerning illiteracy among school children. The report said, among other things, that children were having trouble to read because their books were boring. This inspired Geisel's publisher, and prompted him to send Geisel a list of 400 words he felt were important, asked him to cut the list to 250 words (the publishers idea of how many words at one time a first grader could absorb), and write a book. Nine months later, Geisel, using 220 of the words given to him published The Cat in the Hat , which went on to instant success.

In 1960 Bennett Cerf bet Geisel $50 that he couldn't write an entire book using only fifty words. The result was Green Eggs and Ham . Cerf never paid the $50 from the bet.

Helen Palmer Geisel died in 1967. Theodor Geisel married Audrey Stone Diamond in 1968. Theodor Seuss Geisel died 24 September 1991.

Also worked under the pen name: Theo Le Sieg

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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
Profile Image for Libby.
98 reviews1 follower
February 5, 2021
A picture book with an interesting message that was used in an assembly on Holocaust Memorial Day at my placement school. It explores themes of discrimination and assimilation in an accessible way.
Profile Image for Austin Wright.
1,187 reviews26 followers
February 4, 2015
Leave it to the USA to fuck up Yugoslavia's war so much--that they think dropping Dr. Seuss books would help.

"Agency of NATO and United Nations to Distribute Dr. Seuss Stories to Foster Racial Tolerance in War-Torn Bosnia". Business Wire (Business Wire, Inc.). 1998-08-10. Retrieved 2006-10-16. "Random House Children's Publishing and Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced today that The Sneetches and Other Stories, a book by the celebrated children's author Dr. Seuss, will be translated by NATO into Serbo-Croatian and distributed in the fall to 500,000 children in Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of an information campaign to help encourage racial tolerance."
Profile Image for foo4luv.
305 reviews1 follower
January 20, 2011
"Oh, save me from these pale green pants with nobody inside!" I had this one memorized, we read it so often. I know, I know. What pale green pants? I don't remember any pants in the sneetches story. Read the other one. You won't regret it.
Profile Image for Katie.
35 reviews
June 3, 2011
I loved the story the sneetches it was about how you should except yourself for who you are. What was I afraid of was also very well written too. But, of course this book was good it was written by Dr.Suess.
Profile Image for Laura Elizabeth.
1,087 reviews
June 3, 2014
This is one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books. It teaches really that it doesn't matter what looks on the outside make you different, and that no one is really better than another.
I have this for my kids too!
Profile Image for B.
220 reviews8 followers
January 7, 2014
It's Dr. Seuss! What more can you say? Inspirational, appropriate and fun for any age.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews

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