I have always loved Dr. Seuss books and so enjoy reading them to children. I get as caught up in the rhymes as the children do.

I do have to admit, at times I’m just not sure how the rhymes manage to take all of the turns that it does in some books. That is the case with Hop On Pop. The story seems to twist and turn and takes us all over the place.

The Story

Dr. Seuss stories are hard to describe, they jump from here to there and there to here, they jump around everywhere!

Hop On Pop starts with a Pup in a Cup and moves along to Mouse in House. Before we know we meet Pat……who sits on all sorts of things, like hats and bats…..Pat almost sat on the cat.

One part of the story shows us how a Thing can sing:

Thing
Thing
What is that thing?
Thing
Sing
That Thing can sing!

Near the end of the book we even meet Father and Mother, Sister and Brothers. The brothers read a little bit……but Father can read big words too. Like………… Constantinople and Timbuktu.

The Illustrations

The illustrations in this book are of the classic Dr. Seuss style. Some things are real types of animals while others seem to be of his imagination with odd ears or tails or flippers or fins.

The colors used in this book are mostly bright blues, yellows, browns and green. The use of a sudden burst of bright red adds interest to one page that is about a lad named Red. His bright red hair really draws the eye to it.

The drawings are very simple and I think that is what makes them so interesting. It doesn’t take a lot of detailing to make a Dr. Seuss book hold a child’s interest.

Each page uses ˝ to 2/3 of the page for the illustration and the rest is the white page with very large black text. First the two or three main words of a particular page are written and then the story continues along below that.

My Feelings

I guess what makes this book a fun one to read to the children is how nonsensical it is. It is silly and allows us to be silly as well. Sammi loves the sounds of the rhymes and even at three years old can often tell what word is going to come next, because of the great rhymes.

The very large black text is one of my favorite things about this book. It is easy for me to see but more than that it is excellent for early readers. The words are repeated over and over and the rhyme even helps early readers be able to figure out what the next word may be if it is unfamiliar to them. Using two or three very large bold black words on each page followed by the story below helps to reinforce each word a child is learning to read.

While I like Hop On Pop it is not my favorite Dr. Seuss book. It is cute and the rhymes and illustrations are interesting, but I prefer a story that can be followed as in How the Grinch Stole Christmas or Green Eggs and Ham.

Even though it isn’t my favorite, it is a book that I’ll keep in my daycare so that as the children are growing and learning, those who would like to begin some word recognition can do so with this book. It is a good book to help them begin the simple words like cup, hop, pop, all, day etc.

The children enjoy hearing it and Sammi is asking for it daily, so I would recommend it as a book that belongs on a child's bookcase.

Nuts and Bolts

Hop On Pop is another book that was written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss. This book is part of I Can Read It Beginners Books Series that is published by Grolier Book Club Edition, a division of Random House.

This 64 page hardcover book is recommended for children 4 – 7 years, but some children as young as 2 may enjoy it as well.

The copy that I have is copyrighted in 1963, and there have been many reprints since then.

ISBN: 039480029X

A Few Seuss Facts**

While most people know that Dr. Seuss was born Theodore Seuss Geisel, I didn’t realize that he was born in Springfield Massachusetts. That fact was a fun one to learn, because that is where I was born as well.

I was also surprised to hear that Dr. Seuss only wrote a little over 40 books. Not nearly as many as I thought.

Dr. Seuss was not really very fond of children and never had any of his own. His widow said that he was rather afraid of them and what they may do or ask next. That is a surprising fact about an author that wrote so many wonderful children’s books.

Today, March 2, 2004 would be 100th birthday for this wonderful author and although he died in 1991 his great books will live on and delight children for years to come.

**Some of these facts were taken from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3523393.stm

Read Across America Day is just one of the many celebrations in honor of what would have been Dr. Seuss' 100th birthday. There are events planned for the entire year of 2004, for more information go to the Seussentennial web site http://www.seussentennial.com

Thanks to everyone who participated in this write off and thanks to debbie26 for organizing this Read Across America W/O

wifeofvolsfan
kamel622
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ed_grover
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Recommended: Yes