My ten-year-old daughter and I were having a conversation about the first book we remember. She has the family affliction of book-addiction (passed down through the females), and my memory started to wander.
I was a wee tot of about three-years-old. We were living in an apartment in Anaheim, California; pre-urban sprawl. It was early morning and I had just woken up to the sounds of my father's morning routine, whatever that may have been. He was always the first up in the morning, a left-over of his Iowa farm days. I don't remember any conversation, I just remember sitting in his lap while he read Happy Birthday to You. He pointed to the words as he read them and would pause every so often so that I could say the words he knew I could recognize. Thus was my indoctrination into the world of literacy. Thanks, Dad.
I still have this book. It is torn and tattered, and the illustrations are somewhat faded, but it maintains a place on Mommy's Special Books Shelf. I read it to my kids, each on their own birthdays. My daughter loves it, my son tolerates it. But then again, he's thirteen now and deep in the throws of Blase Syndrome.
In rereading this book, it's easy to see the appeal it might have to younger children, even though it's one of Dr. Seuss' lesser known books. It is every child's dream of how their birthday will be. The first lines say it all:
I wish we could do what they do in Katroo
They sure know how to say "Happy Birthday to You!"
In Katroo, every year, on the day you were born
They start the day right in the bright early morn
When the Birthday Honk-Honker hikes high up Mr. Zorn
And let's loose a big blast on the big Birthday Horn.
And the voice of the horn calls out loud as it plays:
"Wake Up! For today is your Day of all Days!"
After the horn, comes the Great Birthday Bird, that sadly, only grows in Katroo, who takes the young tyke in the story to all kinds of wonderful places. First comes a ride on the back of a creature called a Smorgasbord, who has all kinds of wonderful treats dangling from the covered table and chairs that are strapped to his back. Then comes a trip to the most fabulous garden where the garden tenders are ready to snip off a humungous bouquet for the lucky Birthday Child. There are dips in warmed pools, and endless strings of hotdogs, and then the most wonderful birthday party imaginable.
What child hasn't imagined that upon waking on his or her "Day of Days" that everybody knew how special the day was for him or her and then went out of their way to make it even more so?
While the colors in my edition of this book are a little on the 60's-ish side (lots of oranges and greens), they are still beguiling. Only the Birthday Child is drawn as a piece of reality. The rest is strictly fantasy. The Birthday Bird is a huge red creation with a very happy smile on his face. The places they go range from beautiful (like the garden) to fantastic (the warmed pools are tiered and entirely structurally unsound) to downright magical (fishes singing in a bay while they spell out Happy Birthday to You).
While most Seuss books swirl in imagination, this one is a step-and-a-half from over the top. There is no struggle to be understood as in the Horton series. There is no sense of lost control like The Cat in the Hat or Freddy Bartholemew and His 500 Hats. There is no succumbing to the inevitable like the poor creature in Green Eggs and Ham. There is just pure fun. The reader (or readee, as the case might be) is swept up along with the Birthday Child for the Birthday of a lifetime.
The most special thing about this book is the message - all Dr. Seuss books have one. This one is most special, though, if you ask me:
If we didn't have birthdays, you wouldn't be you.
If you'd never been born, well then what would you do?
If you'd never been born, well then what would you be?
You might be a fish! Or a toad in a tree!
You might be a doorknob! Or three baked potatoes!
You might be a bag full of hard green tomatoes.
Or worse than all that... Why, you might be a WASN'T!
A Wasn't has no fun at all. No, he doesn't.
A Wasn't just isn't. He just isn't present.
But you... You ARE YOU! And, now isn't that pleasant!
Shout loud at the top of your voice, "I AM I!
ME!
I am I!
And I may not know why
But I know that I like it.
Three cheers! I AM I!
Wow... Thanks, again, Dr. Seuss!
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