Saturday, March 14, 2015

Seuss on Saturday #11


On Beyond Zebra! Dr. Seuss. 1955. Random House. 64 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence:
Said Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell,
My very young friend who is learning to spell:
"The A is for Ape. And the B is for Bear.
"The C is for Camel. The H is for Hare.
"The M is for Mouse. And the R. is for Rat.
"I know all the twenty-six letters like that...
"...through to Z is for Zebra. I know them all well."
Said Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell.
Premise/Plot: One little boy claims his alphabet starts where other kids' alphabets end. He introduces the letters, "YUZZ," "WUM," "UM," "HUMPF," "FUDDLE," "GLIKK," NUH," "SNEE," "QUAN," "THNAD," "SPAZZ," "FLOOB," "ZATZ," "JOGG," "FLUNN," "ITCH," "YEKK," "VROO," AND "HI!" Of course, there's reasoning behind each new letter. Crazy fun as only Dr. Seuss can do. For example:
Then just one step a step further past Wum is for Wumbus
And there you'll find UM. And the Um is for Umbus
A sort of a Cow, with one head and one tail,
But to milk this great cow you need more than one pail!
She has ninety-eight faucets that give milk quite nicely.
Perhaps ninety-nine. I forget just precisely.
And, boy! She is something most people don't see
Because most people stop at the Z
But not me!
My thoughts: What's not to love?! I'll admit this is the first time I've read On Beyond Zebra! And I'll admit it didn't instantly become my new favorite Seuss book or anything. But is it worth reading? Yes! I like the rhyming and the storytelling. It's a very imaginative book. If you grew up reading and loving There's A Wocket in My Pocket and you haven't read On Beyond Zebra yet, well, I think you'll enjoy it.

Have you read On Beyond Zebra!? Did you like it? love it? hate it? I'd love to know what you think of it! If you'd like to join me in reading or rereading Dr. Seuss (chronologically) I'd love to have you join me!  The next book I'll be reviewing is If I Ran the Circus.

© 2015 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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