And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street

Marco

by Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss's very first book for children!

A plain horse and wagon on Mulberry Street grows into a story that no one can beat! In this tale, Young Marco allows his imagination to run riot as he travels home from school one day. From a mere horse and wagon, young Marco concocts a colorful cast of characters, making Mulberry Street the most interesting location in town.

The signature rhythmic text, combined with his unmistakable illustrations, will appeal to Dr. Seuss fans of all ages, who will cheer when our hero proves that a little imagination can go a very long way — Who wouldn't cheer when an elephant-pulled sleigh raced by?

Now over seventy-five years old, this story is as timeless as ever. And Marco's singular kind of optimism is also evident in McElligot's Pool.

With his unique combination of hilarious stories, wacky pictures and riotous rhymes, Dr. Seuss has been delighting young children and helping them learn to read for over fifty years. Creator of the wonderfully anarchic 'Cat in the Hat', and ranked among the world's top children's authors, Dr. Seuss is a global best-seller, with nearly half a billion books sold worldwide.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Classics, Poetry, Fantasy, Humor

64 pages, Paperback

First published December 21, 1937

About the author

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

Reviews

[Fergus, Weaver of Autistic Webs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kids have the most OUTLANDISH imaginations.

The authorities, apparently, DON'T.

Call out the Kiddie Keystone Kops...

But picture that imaginative ability quadrupled in the child with undiagnosed Asperger’s Disorder, like me, and you have some idea of the hold of that trait on MY febrile brain.

My grade school teachers used to give us kids creative writing assignments...

My productions were frantically incantory of bizarre and distant mythical events, transmogrified by my rebellious line drawings.

There was a little girl named Sue who attended our class, a distant (socially as well as geographically) neighbour on our street, who would always add the socially acceptable caveat “but it was all a dream” to her inventive creations.

Wow, was I disappointed in her goody-two-shoes demeanour!

A cop-out.

Giving into the enemy: the banal world of adults!

I couldn’t stomach it.

So I did her what I thought was one much better. I wrote my crazy stories as reality - MY reality.

Which elicited nothing but tut-tut’s from my teachers...

Well, Marco’s like that.

He imagines crazy an’ weird things happening on nearby Mulberry Street.

A street full of magical happenings - like the elephant bearing a Pasha’s pillion as it saunters by, on the cover - that only zany kids like me enjoyed.

No, Sue never cared much for Dr. Seuss, and probably never even paused to chuckle over what, to her, were his idiotic ideas, as she gracefully sipped her tea with her parents and polite ADULT neighbours on a placid Sunday afternoon.

But my guffaws over him were loud enough to wake them ALL from their slumber, at the other end of my own imaginary version of Mulberry Street!

Hey - did you spill your tea, Sue?

Just askin’.

[Jayson · Rating 4 out of 5]

(B+) 78% | Good
Notes: Not very loose (the earliest Seuss), simple if solidly done, not very kinetic, a Pre-War aesthetic, vanilla if visually fun.

*Progress update

[Alejandro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here, started it everything!


A DATE AT MULBERRY STREET FOR IMMORTALITY

That can’t be my story. That’s only a start.

I’ll say that a ZEBRA was pulling that cart.

This is the very first story by Dr. Seuss, here, started it all.

And since this beginning, you can appreciate the distinctive style of Dr. Seuss.

A kid is walking to his home, and he’s thinking what “event” will talk about with his dad that he “saw” in Mulberry Street (the route to his home). And obviously, never is too good, never is finished, always getting bigger and bigger. Where his only limitation is the extension of the road.

Dream bigger, it’s the message of this tale (at least that's what I got from it).

However, I found the ending (I won’t tell, don’t worry) kinda anti-climatic, but I guess that maybe Dr. Seuss wanting to expose how hard sometimes is for parents and children to have an open talk without worrying to look foolish to the other.

[Archit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this in my kid voice, I rediscovered the joys of fabricating the reality as a child. The way a child sees the world and interlaces with it his dreamy imaginations.

As an adult, you know the difference between reality and fantasy but as a child it is all one fabric.

Gives you an idea how we all used to blow up the realities when reciting a true event.


I couldn't fully explain,
Things were not so plain.

How one thing led to another.
How the giraffe became my friend's brother.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Given the recent decision by Dr. Seuss Enterprises to cease publication on six Dr. Seuss picture-books that are now thought to contain outdated and offensive elements, I have been considering undertaking a Seuss retrospective as an act of personal protest against what I hold to be an absurd and ill-judged action. My initial thought had been to simply read and review the six books singled out for suppression - And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, McElligot's Pool , If I Ran the Zoo , Scrambled Eggs Super! , On Beyond Zebra! and The Cat's Quizzer - but then I thought: why not do a retrospective of all forty-four of Dr. Seuss's classic picture-books instead, reading and reviewing them chronologically, by publication date? That is what I have elected to do, and appropriately enough, given that it is one of the infamous six, I started with And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.

Originally published in 1937, this was the first of Dr. Seuss's picture-books, and follows young Marco as he walks down a Mulberry Street both real and imagined. Instructed by his father to keep his eyes open, but also rebuked for telling fanciful tales of what he has seen, Marco at first registers "reality," in the form of a fairly tame horse and wagon ambling down the street. Concluding that this makes for a very poor story indeed, Marco begins to embroider upon what he sees, imagining a zebra pulling the cart instead of a horse, and then pretending that it is a chariot being drawn, rather than a cart. His game of make-believe grows ever wilder, as he imagines all sorts of extraordinary embellishments, until he finally ends up with a massive brass band being pulled by a rajah-bearing elephant and two (seeming) giraffes, followed along by an old man in his trailer house, and accompanied by a police escort. This extraordinary equipage dashes past a parade stand featuring the mayor, and is feted by a confetti-dumping airplane. Despite this marvelous feat of fantasy, when Marco returns home again and faces his father, he reverts to "reality," reporting only upon the horse and cart...

Although I would not describe it as the equal of some of Seuss's later hits, like The Lorax or How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (not to mention my own personal favorite, I Had Trouble In Getting To Solla Sollew ), And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street is an astoundingly good picture-book, especially when one considers that it was its creator's debut in the form. The text hasn't quite got that rollicking rhyme I associate with Dr. Seuss, but it reads well, and it tells an engaging story. This is a story, in fact, to get the reader thinking. Marco is clearly an imaginative, creative youngster, one who can transform the ordinary, workaday world into a place of magic, of outlandish and entertaining wonder. Does he represent Seuss (Thedor Geisel), who must surely have had those same abilities, to create the work he did? Is Seuss giving us a peek into his creative process, whereby a humdrum horse-drawn wagon becomes an extravaganza of delight? Perhaps Marco is meant to represent, not Seuss, but the artistic process itself, in which storyteller and draftsman construct something from nothing? Or does Marco represent the child (any child), alive to the wonder and potential of the world, but stifled by adults who just don't understand, and can't enter into the child's-eye view of what is around them? It could be any of them, or all; it could be one at first reading, and another at the second - the reader decides, and that is as it should be.

Just as the story here is full of enchantment, so too is the artwork, starting out on a white page with some introductory text and one illustrative element, in the form of Marco himself. The blue of his shorts and the red of his jacket, socks and book provide the only color. The next two-page spread features the aforementioned horse and wagon, with yellow and green being added to the mix. The artwork grows ever more zany and colorful, and it grows larger as well, moving from a small element of one page, to dominate entire two-page spreads. This swelling of visual grandeur mirrors the growing grandiosity of Marco's make-believe description of what he saw on Mulberry Street, with text and image working smoothly together to build to a storytelling crescendo. This quality - the complementary working of text and artwork to tell a story - is the hallmark of a truly excellent picture-book, and there is no question that And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street has it in spades. A truly remarkable achievement, for a first picture-book!

In reading the commentary and debate surrounding the suppression of this and the other five 'objectionable' Seuss books online, I have encountered a number of falsehoods, but none stands out more to me, now that I have read this book, than the claim that the titles in question have little artistic or literary merit, and that it would be no great loss if they disappeared. As the foregoing analysis of story and artwork should make plain, this is simply not true. There is certainly great merit in this particular book - as for the others, I will judge them as I get to them. In any case, as someone who either never read 'Mulberry Street' as a girl, or who doesn't recall reading it, I approached my reading with fresh eyes, unswayed by nostalgia or childhood loyalty, and I found it to have many excellent qualities. That does not mean, of course, that the book is without flaws, and here we get to the substance of the charges against it. There are three elements that I perceive as being potentially offensive: the appearance of two figures who might be read as eskimos (AKA Inuit); the appearance of an Indian rajah astride the elephant; and the appearance of a Chinese man, depicted in a stereotypical way and described as eating "with sticks." It is not my place to tell other readers what they should or should not find offensive and/or hurtful in the books they encounter, just as it is not their place to tell me. My own interpretation of these images and one brief bit of text, is that they could be read as racially and culturally insensitive, but don't seem to have the animus required to justify the charge of racism. Of course, this is a highly debatable point, as the current discourse around racism is being driven by those who deny that animus is necessary for it to exist. That is a philosophical question well beyond the scope of this review - suffice it to say that I do not subscribe to this revisionist (and thoroughly harmful) definition of what racism is. In any case, I do have some specific thoughts about the three images/story elements in question.

First, the depiction of the purported Eskimos (Inuits) was very ambiguous. I may be alone in this (it's entirely possible), but the image of two fur-clad individuals riding a sleigh pulled by reindeer suggested to me, not the indigenous people of North America's arctic, but the indigenous people of Europe's arctic. The figures are never identified in the text as Eskimo - they're not identified at all - and my own understanding is that the Inuit use dogs to pull their sleds, and hunt reindeer, known here in the western hemisphere as caribou. It is people like the Saami, in far northern Scandinavia, who use domesticated reindeer as draft animals. While it's possible that I am wrong, and that the Inuit have used caribou/reindeer in this way, this is the impression I have always had. Do I think Seuss was thinking of the Saami when he created his tale? Highly unlikely. He was most likely referencing the Inuit (so-called Eskimos) in his own mind, but the question of what readers take away from the image is far more complex. Even if both Seuss and the theoretical reader think "Eskimo," it isn't clear to me, looking at the image, what is objectionable about it, unless the implication is that there is something inherently derogatory about their inclusion in a young boy's wacky fantasy in the first place. If that is the case, then I'm still none the wiser, as plenty of non-Eskimos are also included in Marco's imaginary parade. Perhaps it is the pairing of (purported) Eskimos with reindeer, for precisely the reason stated above - that they don't use these animals in this way, and that the pairing is therefore misleading, conflating very different cultures, and relying upon a stereotypical vision of what Arctic people do - that makes it offensive to some?

My feelings regarding the depiction of the rajah are similar, although I think there is possibly more historical precedent for this image, than the one showing the Eskimos being pulled by reindeer. After all, there are quite a few historical paintings from India (as well as more recent photographs) showing just such a scene. There are even more such images where the rider is not a rajah. Wherein lies the offense? That rajahs aren't common occurrences, even in India, and that western storytelling is awash with a few too many of them, always treated as exotic curiosities? Perhaps so, but it bears recalling that Marco is spinning a fairy-tale, imagining the most unusual things that he can, not the most common or ordinary. Could the use of this elephant-riding rajah figure be considered rather tiresome? Yes, I suppose, but no more so, it seems to me, than the good old Irish-American as policeman figure, also on view. I probably missed all of the public outcry about Sergeant Mulvaney leading the police escort in the story, and how this reflects an overreliance on this type in the books and films of early 20th-century America. Of course, much like the elephant-riding rajah, the type has historical precedent - many Irish-Americans did enter the police force, as it was one of the few areas of employment where they didn't face discrimination - but that doesn't make its overuse feel less formulaic. My purpose here is not to defend the use of stereotype, but to demonstrate that it is clearly not stereotype itself that seems to be driving much of the outrage.

It is with the image and description of the Chinese man that I think critics of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street have their strongest argument. Apparently in the original edition this figure had bright yellow skin and a pigtail, and was described as a "Chinaman." Seuss himself changed these elements, when readers complained to him - he took out the yellow coloring and pigtail, and changed the text to "Chinese man" - which seems to indicate that his intention was not to deliberately offend or dehumanize. Despite this, many still feel that the way in which the figure is drawn and described - the slanting eyes, the fact that he eats with sticks - is problematic. It definitely strikes me as a caricature of an Asian person, and I can understand why it would make people feel uncomfortable. For my own part, I find the image more unfortunate than the text, as it doesn't seem especially offensive to say that Chinese people eat with sticks. Chopsticks might be more accurate, I suppose, but the idea is essentially the same, and the image clarifies what "sticks" means. I suppose there's something a little random, in having a chopstick-holding Chinese man watching the parade - why is he there in the first place? - but given that this is a fantasy sequence, it doesn't feel that obtrusive. The hyper-rational part of me wonders whether this depiction is any more of a caricature of an Asian person, than some of the other depictions are caricatures of European ones, but I accept that the former exists within a framework of stereotypical images that the latter weren't subjected to. All of which is to say, while I can understand why some might not see the image as offensive, I can also see why some would.

In sum: I think that And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street is a wonderful picture-book, when judged from an artistic and literary perspective. It provides an entertaining and thought-provoking story and delightfully amusing artwork, and it displays excellent text-image interaction. It does have some elements that might be considered dated or offensive, which is hardly surprising, in a book from 1937. While I might not agree with every criticism of it, I can certainly understand why some people would feel uncomfortable promoting it. I have absolutely no argument with readers and critics subjecting it to every kind of critique possible - that's what we should all be doing, as readers! - and I wouldn't object to parents, teachers, librarians, and storytellers choosing not to share it with the young children in their charge, if they feel it is harmful. Where I part company with this book's critics, and with those behind this move at Dr. Seuss Enterprises, is over the idea that, because they themselves find the book objectionable, it should therefore not be published, preventing others from easily accessing it. One need only listen to the discourse about harm - the harm the book potentially causes readers - to understand that this is the explicit aim: to slowly disappear these books from the reading world. I have no patience whatsoever with the sophism of those claiming that the suppression of these Seuss titles is not a censorious act, and no sympathy whatsoever with our lamentable chattering class, as they put themselves through mental contortions to demonstrate that this really, really isn't book banning, that Seuss is absolutely not being cancelled, and that the only people objecting are racist far-right trolls intent on scoring political points.

Let me set the record straight. This book may not have been censored by any government entity, nor outright banned by any institution, but the final effect of this decision to self-censor will be the same as if it had. Publication will stop, the book will become scarce, libraries will begin removing copies from their shelves - this has already begun at some libraries - and the books will become less and less accessible, even to those who want to read them. It strikes me that the harm caused by this - authors' estates and publishers pulling their own books, libraries cooperating to purge objectionable material - will be far greater than anything these Seuss books could inflict. Truly, a sad moment for the children's literature world, and for the world of letters in general.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since the Dr. Seuss foundation decided to discontinue publishing 6 of his books, after many months of deliberation and academic conferences, I thought I would reread some of them in the light of the criticism. This is the second one I've reread, after Scrambled Eggs Super, in which there is a page of Inuit hunters seeking rare bird eggs. I acknowledge that I should not be the judge of what's offensive, as a white guy. And if people are offended, and a publisher agrees, I have no problem with books being taken out of circulation. It helps for us to avoid stereotypes, and it is useful for all of us to understand the damage racist images can do.

Mulberry Street, Dr. Seuss's first book, published in 1937, is a kind of shaggy dog story perfect for Seuss sensibilities. A kid is asked what he saw on the way home from school today, and he thinks that to tell the truth would be boring, so on each page his imagination takes him more and more into the ridiculous. And caricature, which Seuss does best. It's in general a fun story.

But also, there's a single offending stereotypical image of a Chinese man with chopsticks. Over time, in subsequent editions, his yellowed skin was lightened, his pigtail was taken away, and he became Chinese man instead of Chinaman. My copy has this updated figure, which I still noticed and could see might cause offense.

Here's an article about the issue in the book, where you can see the image:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-am...

[Majenta · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Stop turning minnows into whales!"

....or at least think about which minnows need to be turned into whales and which whales need to be turned into minnows.

Think. Enjoy.
Enjoy. Think.
Balance.

[Shai · Rating 4 out of 5]

How a plain horse and wagon on Mulberry Street
Grows into a story that no one can beat

I love that ending part of the story and I've just learnt that this is the very first children's book of Dr. Seuss. We know that children have a creative imagination and I guess that this book set as a reminder also for adults, such as parents and teachers, to let kids enhance that skill.

[Maede · Rating 3 out of 5]

این کتاب از کلاسیک‌های کودک محسوب میشه و اولین کتاب دکتر سوس، از دوست‌داشتنی‌ترین و مهم‌ترین نویسندگان کودک قرن بیسته. نویسنده‌ای که در سال ۱۹۳۷ موفق شد این کتاب رو بعد از اینکه توسط بیش از بیست ناشر رد شده بود چاپ کنه و حالا حداقل ۶۰۰ میلیون کپی از کل آثارش در جهان فروش رفته

داستان در مورد پسری به اسم مارکوئه که پدرش ازش می‌خواد در راه برگشت به خونه به اطرافش توجه کنه و هر چی می‌بینه رو‌ براش تعریف کنه. اما چون مارکو چیزی جز یک اسب و گاری معمولی نمی‌بینه، کم‌کم با تخیلیش به دنیای معمولی اطرافش شگفتی اضافه می‌کنه

این کتاب از دسته کتاب‌هاییه که قربانی
Political Correctness و Cancel Culture
شده که هنوز ترجمه‌ی فارسی خوبی برای کلمه‌‌هاش نیست. در کتاب‌های قدیمی، کلمات، موضوع‌ها یا استریوتایپ‌هایی وجود دارند که در زمان حال نسبت بهشون حساسیت وجود داره. برای مثال استفاده از کلمات چاق و سیاه در کتاب‌های رولد دال با سانسور و دستکاری مواجه شدند. اینجا هم تصویر مرد چینی‌ای که با چاپستیک غذا می‌خوره، ترویج استریوتایپ و بی‌احترامی فرهنگی قلمداد شده و چاپ این کتاب از سال ۲۰۲۱ متوقف شده

در مورد موارد درست و غلط حساسیت فرهنگی میشه ساعت‌ها بحث کرد، اما انکار و پاک‌کردن یا سانسور گذشته، در نهایت به چیزی جز تکرارش منجر نمیشه

کتاب رو می‌تونید از اینجا دانلود کنید
Maede's Books

۱۴۰۴/۴/۱

[Lee Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

We got this from the library for 3 year old Rae. She loved it. She asked if all children have their imaginations strangled by adults like the kid in this book.

[Mark Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, we meet Marco, a young boy whose father is always encouraging him to observe the world around him to see what he can see. However, his trip home from school on Mulberry Street is rather boring. All he sees is a horse pulling a broken-down wagon. But what if, instead, he said he saw a new cart…drawn by a zebra. No, that’s not special enough. Where will Marco’s wild story stop?

I didn’t read this book too much as a kid, but even as an adult, it is easy to fall into the classic Seuss rhythm and rhyme. It does get a little repetitive since he repeats Mulberry Street so often, but that’s the only real complaint. Marco’s imagination is so much fun, although I appreciated that he told the truth in the end. The illustrations are classic Seuss as well, and the caricatures of everyone are so much fun. Fans will also enjoy seeing that the elephant looks remarkably like Horton. If you can track this book down, you and your kids will enjoy it.

Read my full review at Carstairs Considers.

[Steven R. McEvoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recently because of some media spotlight on Dr. Seuss and his works. I decided to reread the 6 books in question and two others. But alas only had 5 of the 6 on hand. This is the first of the reviews.

Dr. Seuss is famous for his many children’s books. Books that spark the imagination. Surprise, and amaze. There is a large collection of old animated shorts based on them. And these has been several movies both animated and life action. He also wrote two books that though written and illustrated in a similar style and format are considered adult books they are The Seven Lady Godivas and The Butter Battle Book. Butter Battle is a commentary on war and is often found in the children’s sections in bookstores and libraries. Godivas I believe is long out of print, I believe the last printing was in 1988. And I am only aware of it because it is the favorite book of a friend.

I do not know a child who has not engaged with these books on some level. My youngest and my wife have a few of them memorized. And recite them to each other before bed, as much as read. My children loved the old, animated shorts, and like most of the movies. I was less fond of the live action movies but appreciate most of the animated ones. But back to this book.

This is a story, about a story or use of imagination. Marco is walking home from school and knows his father will want to know what he saw. Apparently his father was teaching him to be observant. He only sees a horse drawn card. And the story is his imaginings of how it could be something else. Getting bigger, better, and grandeur with each revision. There are some hilarious interpretations. My favorite is the elephant and 2 giraffes’ pulling it. The illustrations are fun and whimsical. The book is easily read in a short sitting.

A fun read.

Read the review on my blog Book Reviews and More.

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marvin spins a wonderful tale for his dad when he gets home from school turning minnows into whales. I remember the pictures from when I was a kid and now can appreciate the way the story encourages imagination – even if the dad is kind of a wet blanket at the end.

[Allie · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the Seuss books specifically mentioned in the excellent article The Cat is Out of the Bag: Orientalism, Anti-Blackness, and White Supremacy in Dr. Seuss's Children's Books. I remember reading this fondly as a child, but neither I nor those reading to me were reading critically then. Despite high circulation, if I had my druthers I would get rid of all but one copy of these problematic titles. We are a resource library so I understand why we need to keep things, but having 4 copies on the shelves indicates to people browsing that Seuss books are worth reading. They're not!

[Mya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used to live on a Mulberry Street. This book brought a lot of good memories that were form way back then.

[Andrea Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a cute story about a wild imagination.

[Morgan's Endless Bookshelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

The imagination of a child is portrayed so well!

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

So apparently this was the very first Suess book. Published nearly 80 years ago it is a classic indeed. I had never heard of this book before. My stepdaughter was cleaning out her room at her mother's house and brought my son a giraffe that she was given at Easter. Apparently, that giraffe had to do with this book so my son wanted me to read the book to him.

Normally, right here I would give a synopsis of the book but there is a more pressing issue I have to get into. So the copy I read to my son was an old one. As in it was as it was originally written. I wish I had known that there was a not so minor change made back in the late 1970s. I had sat down and was reading the book to my son while my husband sat across from us playing a game on his iPad. All the sudden I came to a part in the book that I read and after I read it I hesitated for a half a second before quickly moving along.

You see I came to something that shows the blatant racism you would find in the 1930s. I had just read the word "chinaman" to my son. I was horrified and couldn't even look at the corner of the page where I just knew there was going to be a horrible caricature that I did NOT want him looking at. I quickly showed him the man with a long beard in the middle of the page praying he had not looked at the picture on the left-hand side.

Suess had agreed to change the wording to "Chinese man" and the drawing was changed to be less stereotypical. I still haven't looked at that picture but I know that the man was yellow in color. My husband and I discussed it afterward. We both were kind of not sure how to handle the situation. Do I have a discussion with my son? Do I just let it go and hope he didn't absorb any of it?

In the end, we decided to let it go as my son is special needs and right now this is a discussion that he does not have the capability to understand. But we have put it on our list of future discussions to have with him.

As far as rating this book it was an OK book up until that point. I just can't reconcile what I read. There is also a bit in there which ticked off my inner feminist but nowhere near as much as that racist moment. I understand that at the time it was considered perfectly normal but I'm a modern person and I can't just ignore something like that. I won't ignore something like that.

So I'm sorry but this Suess book is a 0 out of 5 stars for me.

[— nova · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I lived on Mulberry Street.

[Ronyell · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

I have been reading Dr. Seuss’s works ever since I was a child (it is pretty much a requirement as a child to read a Dr. Seuss book). So of course, I still have not read all of Dr. Seuss’s works and one of the books that I had owned ever since I was little, but I never really read was “And to Think that I Saw it On Mulberry Street!” I only picked up this book after all of these years when some of my Goodreads friends had recommended it to me and I must say that it was quite a decent beginning for Dr. Seuss’s early works.

The story starts off with Marco’s father telling Marco to keep his eyelids up and see the things he can see on the street. So, when Marco walked down Mulberry Street, he noticed a horse pulling a broken-down wagon down the street. Marco thought that this sight was too boring and he started to imagine seeing more lavish decorations to the horse and wagon such as imagining it as a chariot being pulled by a reindeer or a sleigh being pulled by a large blue elephant with a Rajah riding on the elephant.

I have been reading many of Dr. Seuss’s works ever since I was a child and this book just happened to pass under the radar for me at the time. It is amazing in seeing how Dr. Seuss’s earlier works differs heavily from his later works (for one thing, Dr. Seuss’s earlier works are a lot wordier than his later works). So, of course I was a bit curious about seeing how this early work of Dr. Seuss’s would turn out and I ended up being quite interested in the subtle yet creative storytelling of this book! Dr. Seuss had done a great job at writing this story as the story explores how far Marco’s imagination can go and teaches the reader about the beauty of having a vivid imagination. I loved the scenes of Marco using his imagination to make the sight of Mulberry Street much more interesting as it made the scenes much more entertaining to look at. I especially loved the scenes of Marco imagining a musical band being pulled by a blue elephant as it was such a creative sight to see!



The reason why I took off half a point from the rating was because while the story was quite creative, I do not think that this book was as memorable as some of Dr. Seuss’s later works. For one thing, the writing is much lengthier than most of Dr. Seuss’s works and that can make this book a bit of chore to read through. Also, this book does not have Dr. Seuss’s signature odd creatures that usually appear in his books (with the exception of the blue elephant). There is also a controversial image in this book of a Chinese boy being shown as an offensive stereotype of Asians that might offend some people (although this book was written during the 1930s).

Overall, “And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street” is a great introduction to Dr. Seuss’s earlier works and would be a great read for children who are huge fans of Dr. Seuss’s works! I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since the portrayal of the Chinese boy might offend some people.

I would like to thank my Goodreads friend Kelly for recommending me this book!

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Seuss's first published children's book was certainly groundbreaking for its time. It was, indeed, rejected 27 times before Seuss had a chance encounter with an friend-turned-editor whom he bumped into while walking in New York City one day (see, awesome things do happen on average streets every day!) The editor took a chance on the young author/illustrator and the rest, as they say, is history.

I don't remember reading it as a kid, whether because I was not exposed to it or it simply wasn't that memorable to me I don't know. Coming to it now, as an adult, I wasn't wowed though I certainly appreciate the importance of this work, Seuss's creativity and the innovation at the time. It has aged well, too (if perhaps not quite so gracefully as some of his other works, IMO). But, the rhyme didn't seem to flow or to be as creative as some of his later works (I missed Seuss's special brand of "nonsense" words). Similarly, the illustrations, while depicting Marco's wild imagination, are fairly prosaic compared to the creations of Seuss's later works (I'm thinking Sneetches and Lorax and Grinch, etc.) though one does get a taste of what's to come with the fanciful renderings of the elephants and giraffes. Perhaps I just know too much of what was in Seuss's (and his adoring public's) future in order to really love "Mulberry Street" but I'm glad I read it and would certainly share it with my son.

More about Seuss and Mulberry Street here: http://www.npr.org/2012/01/24/1454717...

[Cynda reads little. Welcomes prayers for health. · Rating 3 out of 5]

My mother read Dr. Suess to me. I learned how to read by reading Dr. Suess' books. I taught my brothers and son to read from Dr. Suess' books. Now I start to revisit Dr. Suess' books to discover new aspects at different time of life.

Children learn early on that they cannot tell their adults much truth as adults don't understand. I was among the very last of the boomers, from a time of child culture where we spent many delightful, intense hours of make-believe being who and being where we wanted to be.

So we were okay with adults not understanding because we had lives outside home, away from technology, using implements that indicated a different reality. . . . .What is a child to do now???

Read during Dewey's 24-Readathon April. 2023.

[Gerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

On a walk home from school Marco sees a horse and cart in Mulberry Street. Wanting to tell his Dad something exciting, he imagines what it could turn out to be.

His imagination runs riot and from a simple horse and cart, it metarmorphoses into a cart pulled by a zebra, then a chariot pulled by a zebra before we have a reindeer pulling a sledge, an elephant pulling a brass band and other incarnations before Sergeant Mulvaney escorts the whole shebang down Mulberry Street.

Obviously it all happens on Mulberry Street ... but what will Marco tell his Dad when he gets home????

[Stacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favorite book from my childhood of all of Seuss's books. I enjoyed sharing it with the grandkids.

[Erth · Rating 5 out of 5]

We love Dr. Seuss at my house.

[Shanna Gonzalez · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first of Dr. Seuss's books for children, and it is a good introduction to the imaginative creativity which opened his career as an enormously popular children's writer. In this story a young boy walking home from school, and on seeing a simple horse and cart, embellishes it in his mind by first changing the animal, then the conveyance, then adds passengers, and so on, until the horse and cart are transformed into a veritable parade. This is a quite enjoyable flight of imagination.

Unfortunately, the story opens with the boy's father admonishing him against lying, and when he arrives home his father's quelling response keeps the boy from sharing his story. Young children do know the difference between truth and fiction, so the conflict between the boy and his father is troubling. Either the character in the book is actually given to deception, or his father is suppressive of his imagination. Both interpretations would suggest potentially serious problems in a real father-son relationship because they evince a lack of trust. The tall tale is wonderful, but the dynamic between father and son isn't one I want to have emulated in our family.

[مصطفي سليمان · Rating 5 out of 5]

بكل ما تحمله الكلمة انه عبقري
انا بحب الراجل دا بجد
بحب كلامه
ورسوماته

قصة جديدة من عبقري

عن اب طلب من ابنه وهو راجع من المدرسة
ف شارع التوت يركز مع كل حاجه حواليه
ويجي يحكي ليه حصل ايه
:)
ف الولد بيشوف عربية بيجرها حمار
وبيبتدي يحس ان مفيش حاجه تتحكي ف يبتدي
يتخيل مكان الحمار فيل وريندير
وفرق موسيقة والمحافظ
و ..و.. وبيرجع البيت وهو حاسس انه هيحكي حكاية مالهاش زي
ف ابوه بيسئله
ف هو بيخاف وميبقاش عارف يحكي ايه؟
:))

الخطوط والرسوم ساحرة ك عادته الكلام سهل ممتنع
رائع

[Katja Labonté · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars & 4/10 hearts. I was curious to read this because of its recently being condemned. I was left very confused, since the reason the Chinese man is brought up is because of how special he is—it seemed a celebration of diversity, to me. (Especially since Marco is probably Italian!) I found this a very fun little book. It was a good lesson of how a simple story can grow waaaay out of proportion. I liked how at the end Marco realized the difference between lying and imagination, but it wasn’t a heavily drawn moral—kids have to think it out for themselves. It was very fun to read aloud, and like all Dr. Seuss, had a great moral!

[Dehlia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I grew up loving this book. I bet we read it weekly for a while. I finally got around to reading it to the girls on Wednesday night, after our country elected a sexist, racist misogynist. And here is why this book won't be read again:

"Hmmm... A reindeer and a sleigh…
Say-- anyone could think of that,
Jack or Fred or Joe or Nat--
Say, even Jane could think of that."

Because it was assumed in 1937 that the female brain was less creative, less advanced, less capable than the male brain.

[Mariah Roze · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book to my students and they really enjoyed it! I had never even heard of this Dr. Seuss book before.

"A plain horse and wagon on Mulberry Street grows into a story that no one can beat! In this tale, Young Marco allows his imagination to run riot as he travels home from school one day, to the extent that a horse and cart is soon transformed into a chaotic carnival of colourful creatures in his own mind."