In Seussland, we are likely to meet
The fuzzy and feathered and furry,
They like to wear hats, mittens and socks,
And run, fly and jump in a hurry.
Dr. Seuss helped us learn how to read,
Boomers, X-ers and Millennials all.
He made up new words — like "lightninged" and "nerd",
And also made reading a ball!
Enough with old Dick, enough with old Jane,
Enough with their stupid dog Spot.
It's Dr. Seuss who made reading fun,
Teaching what could never be taught!
A new book by the doctor is about to come out.
What Pet Should I Get? is its name.
It's short and it's Seuss-ish, not One Fish Two Fish, But it does play a similar game.
Filled with creatures both real and zany,
It shows off his gift for creating a zoo.
Two-legged, four-legged, winged and finned,
Beasties familiar and entirely new!
In his oodles of books, they twitter and woof,
They yitter and yap, and the humming fish hum.
They gobble up ham along with green eggs,
And some are quite chipper, but others are glum.
Who influenced Ted Geisel, young Dr. Seuss?
Some might say Carroll; others say Lear.
Some say Miró; others say Escher.
Mixing dreams and nonsense with brio and cheer!
His words skid and they bump.
They bounce and they wheel.
And to the life that we know,
His drawings bring the surreal.
Seuss was able to make language sing
With a very American cool.
He conjured old realms like Mulberry Street,
And new ones like the Jungle of Nool.
He captured the "howling mad hullabaloo"
Out there in the world that sprang from his head.
With ink in his pen and rhymes in his brain,
He took us past Zebra, and way beyond zed.
There was a Nook, a Zans, a Gox and a Ying,
A cat in a hat and a fox in blue socks.
Saintly old Horton who saved Who-ville's whole world,
And Thing One and Thing Two who lived in a box.
Yes, yes, it's truer than true:
The great doctor made fun that was funny!
His creatures are shaggy and splendid and squishy,
In a cosmos uncertain but sunny.
What Pet Should I Get? has no great big lesson.
Other Seuss books came complete with a moral.
The Lorax implored, please save our trees,
The Sneetches said nicely, try not to quarrel.
Yertle The Turtle was about the wages of ego,
Horton was all kindness and grace.
The Cat In The Hat brought the arrival of chaos,
Oh, The Places You'll Go! said life's not a race.
Seuss never spoke down to his readers, no matter how small.
His tales were told with vim, vigour and zest.
What Pet Should I Get? entertains us just fine.
Who cares if this book's not really his best?
What Pet Should I Get?
By Dr. Seuss
Illustrated
Random House Children's Books
