Green Eggs and Ham

Reading is fun ! 

Green Eggs and Ham is one of Theodor Seuss Geisel’s, [Dr Seuss], most famous works.

It has been listed as the fourth best-selling English-language children’s book of all time even surpassing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and coming close behind The Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter.

Seuss, a cartoonist and writer, is best known for his quirky illustrations and rhythmic poetry [anapestic tetrameter] which make his stories so appealing.

Green Eggs and Ham was originally written as a bet between Seuss and his publisher. Seuss had completed The Cat in the Hat using only 236 words and was challenged to complete an entire book with fewer words.

Seuss [a German name rhyming with rejoice] completed the book with only 50 words.

The 50 words are: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you.

Seuss wrote the stories in the 1950s, an era when children’s readers were Dick and Jane stories. A national report on illiteracy among school children at the time, concluded that children were not learning to read because their books were boring.

Seuss’s books which were both simple and amusing, sold record numbers.

Want your kids to read? Read them Dr. Seuss.