There is so much going on this month and today, because readers and writers everywhere are honoring their love of thumbing through books and flipping through digital pages in celebration of Reading Month! I have not celebrated Reading Month much before, but after working at a school, it is certainly a cause for celebration because students get amped up to get caught reading or working on a variety of activities in the building (mystery readers, poetry days, crafting their own stories, etc.). With that being said, I think readers, writers, and adults of any age should rejoice as well because everybody needs to thank the authors and books that have gotten us through low points and tragedy by picking us up off the ground when we needed it.
Additionally, it is the birthday of Dr. Seuss, born Theodor Seuss Geisel, which, if you do not know who he is…then get outta here!
With all joking aside, Dr. Seuss is like Star Wars, you cannot really have a close, personal relationship with his work because it belongs to everybody. It is like saying, “I’m a fan of Shel Silverstein.” Oh dear, I regret to inform you, we’re all fans of Shel Silverstein. Dr. Seuss’s work is just too universal and pervasive to belong to anybody or to be anybody’s favorite, because we’re all lovers of his writing and we benefit from his creativity as a community. He is somebody who seems to have singlehandedly informed a lot of people’s childhoods through both the quality and quantity of his work, and he will no doubt continue to do so for future readers and writers (my daughter included, I’m sure).
(As an aside, today, I read “Too Many Daves,” and now I think you should, too, because it is a good distillation of Dr. Seuss’s humor, creativity, and overall nuttiness, while also trying to make a point…or maybe he was just trying to be funny).
In any case, grab a Dr. Seuss poem off your shelf (or the internet) and good luck reading this month!
