Hurray For Today! All About Holidays - Seussical Lessons on Celebrations
Written: Sep 20 '07 (Updated Sep 20 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Very Seussical, Great illustrations, nice lessons
Cons: May offend some fundamental Christians, so don't read it if this is you.
The Bottom Line: Hurray for Holidays! takes a Cat in the Hat approach to teaching young children about the origins of holidays. A very child friendly way to learn.
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| mongkut's Full Review: Bonnie Worth - Hurray for Today!: All About Holida... |
Like many children I grew up with Dr. Seuss books. My all time favorite was ‘And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street.’ My son had a few Dr Seuss originals like the ‘Cat in the Hat’ but was never overly enthused to have them read to him. Then I discovered some new books written in the style of Dr. Seuss which taught lessons about the environment, animals, and marine life. Because they touched on real living things my son was fascinated with them and they became instant hits.
Wanting to branch off I found another book written in a Seussian style about our holidays and why we celebrate them.
The Book
Hurray for Today! is a 45 page hardcover book that discusses the holidays throughout the year. It talks about their origins and why and how we celebrate them today. The story is narrated by the Cat in the Hat as he leads Sally and Dick through the various seasons and the holidays they contain. He is assisted as usual by Thing One and Thing Two in the colorfully illustrated story written by Bonnie Worth and illustrated by Aristides Ruiz and Joe Mathieu.
The book starts out with an explanation of just what the word holiday means in a non-religious connotation. And speaking of which, this book avoids all but the most indirect references to religious holidays in a very PC manner. Next is an explanation of calendars and seasons followed by a season by season description of the following holidays:
- “Winter Holidays”
- New Years
- Ground Hog Day
- Valentine’s Day
- President’s Day
- St. Patrick’s Day
- Spring Equinox (in lieu of Vernal)
- Easter Fest (Taking the Christian origins out and highlighting the real pagan origins.)
- Mother’s Day
- Memorial Day
- July 4th
- Labor Day
- Autumnal Equinox (Makes me wonder why they couldn’t say Vernal before)
- Halloween
- Thanksgiving
At the end of the book is a short glossary and suggestions for further reading by age level.
Our Experience
Although ‘Hurray for Today!’ isn’t my son’s favorite educational Seuss book, it still teaches some decent lessons about the origins of holidays and why we celebrate them. In my son’s case he is a bit more interested in the nature oriented books but he still finds this one enjoyable.
As a parent I like the fact that beyond the whimsical Seuss rhyming style and fanciful art work there is a lesson to be learned. The lessons are far from in depth but given that the target audience ranges from preschoolers to third graders that's to be expected. There is a blend of the old and new with a particular emphasis on ancient celebrations with pagan origins that might make some uncomfortable. I’ll address this in the next section. What I did find funny was that the explanations of Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s day referred directly to the Catholic priests for whom the holiday’s were named, so it seems the PC focus of the book goes only as far as the ‘J’ word.
The more recent national holidays such as Memorial Day and President’s Day are handled very well . I was somewhat surprised that the Memorial Day explanation alluded to war dead. I’m glad that this was not glossed over and even happier that it was presented in a thoughtful , almost reverential manner.
“On Memorial Day,
as you may well have read,
we stop and we honor
our noble war dead.
We let our flag fly,
As you see, at half-mast
To honor those brave souls,
Both present and past.”
I will say I was somewhat disappointed that Mother’s Day got a whole page while Father’s Day got sort of an afterthought little blurb at the bottom of the Summer page. It must be a Mr. Mom thing.
The glossary at the end seemed a bit weak to me and even included the definition of the word beautician which relates to holidays how, exactly? In the back of mind I can hear the faint sounds of Aqua singing ‘Barbie Girl.’
“I'm a barbie girl,
in a barbie world
Life in plastic,
it's fantastic!”
The further reading section seems much more substantial, although I have not had the time to investigate any of the recommended reading materials.
Overall I like this book and think that the author did a very good job mimicking the Seuss rhyming style. The illustrations are very good and the lessons about our holidays are perfect for young listeners.
Religious Holidays as seen through Seussical eyes
I’m not bothered by the PC-ification of the holidays because it doesn’t water down the religious aspect as far as my son is concerned. He’ll learn the religious significance from other sources and I had planned on teaching him that many of our religious holidays were aligned with older pagan celebrations as a way for the emerging early Christian church to convert those around them. He may yet be too young to understand that a decorated tree and a fat guy in red have zero to do with the birth of Jesus. I’m certainly not uncomfortable with him learning that the Christian celebration of Easter as the resurrection was actually the hijacking of the pagan celebration of the goddess Eastre.
Some parents may be less comfortable with this potential lifting of the millennia old veil. If you don’t want your traditional Christian religious holiday boat rocked then I would advise against reading this book to your children. In my personal opinion it is very healthy to separate the historical from the invented or co-opted. But that is just me and I grew up celebrating both Christian and Jewish holidays which gave me a much better perspective on where my faith is based.
The Price: The cover price is $8.99. I paid slightly less using a discount card.
Age Appropriate Range: Ages 4-8
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Copyright Date: October 26, 2004
Pages: 45
ISBN Number: 9780375922756
Type: Hardcover, 9.25" x 6.75" x 0.25"
This is my first, and late, entry into Hadassahchana and Dramastef's Fight Illiteracy write off.
Recommended:
Yes
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