In this book a tricky fox tries to teach a reluctant Mr. Know various rhyming tongue twisters. As Mr. Knox tries to convince the fox that he can’t say the various rhymes he ends up saying them. I give an example below:

“Pig band!  Boom band!”
“Big band!  Broom band!”
“My poor mouth can't say that.  No, sir.”
“My poor mouth is much too slow, sir.”

“Well then... bring your mouth this way.”
“I'll find it something it can say.”

We taught our kids to read at an early age (three to four) and we used the Dr. Seuss books extensively including this one. In general the Dr. Seuss books are great for teaching kids how to read. In general these books make extensive use of poetic meters, rhymes, simple words, repetitions, fun simple stories, and helpful and colorful illustrations that help kids guess the words and learn phonics.

However, this book is a little different in the sense that the focus is on the tongue twisters. Some of the tongue twisters are clever and fun. However, the rhymes don’t flow as well and the story is somewhat flat, and after a while the tongue twisters become tedious.

The story follows this theme; say this, but I won’t say that, and various strange situations are lined up one after another, just to make a new tongue twister. That gets old quickly. It is not too different from “Green Eggs and Ham” with respect to the story outline but the situations in “Green Eggs and Ham” are more creative and more fun, and “Green Eggs and Ham” flows better. The biggest drawback with this book is that the book is actually difficult to read even for an adult. However, reading it corresponds to a fairly good phonics lesson, if your child is patient enough to get through it.

I think it is a decent book and we read it a few times. However, our kids were never fond of this book and I agree with Mr. Knox. I recommend “Green Eggs and Ham”, “the Cat in the Hat”, “the Cat in the Hat comes Back”, “Ten Apples up on Top”, and the “Lorax” over this one. I still recommend it but don’t let it be your only or yourfirst Dr.Seuss book.

Lean-n-mean 385 words



Recommended: Yes