Because a Little Bug went Ka-Choo!
by Rosetta Stone [aka Dr Seuss]; ill. Michael Frith (Random House, 1975)
Fun though inconsistent rhymed verse from Dr Seuss, illustrated in the Seuss style by Michael Frith. The story is a rambunctious demonstration of the butterfly effect, starting with a bug’s sneeze and ending in town-wide mayhem. The bopped turtle is a highlight.
Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel
by Richard H. Minear (The New Press, 1999)
Minear provides detailed historical context through which to appreciate (or occasionally question) Theodor Geisel’s distinctive, beguilingly Seuss-esque wartime cartoons. Each drawing is presented on its own page but regrettably this is not a complete record. Many more are referenced but not included.
A Moose that says Moooooooooo
by Jennifer Hamburg; ill. Sue Truesdell (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2013)
The moose barely features but it does start the fun, Hamburg letting her hair down in a freewheeling animals-gone-wild story (spoilt only by occasional stumbles in her Dr Seuss-like amphibrachic tetrameter). Truesdell captures the chaos with vibrant illustrations à la Quentin Blake.
Horton and the Kwuggerbug
by Dr. Seuss (HarperCollins, 2014)
These four ‘lost’ stories (ie. published originally in Redbook magazine in the 1950s, not in book form) show nascent elements of more-famous Dr. Seuss tales. Though slightly too wordy and more overtly moralising than Seuss’s early reader books, the illustrations remain masterful.
Great Day For Up
by Dr. Seuss; ill. Quentin Blake (Random House, 1974)
The first Dr Seuss book not illustrated by the man himself, Great Day For Up was brought to life instead by the redoubtable — and equally inimitable — Quentin Blake. The rhythm is slippery at times but the book verily fizzes with joyous exuberance.
The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss
(Random House, 1995)
A collection of unconstrained flights of fancy: art for art’s sake, featuring some of the characters that inhabited Geisel’s picture books, but presented in surreal (and often quite adult) Dalí-esque compositions — or sculptures! — owing no allegiance to storylines or considerations of audience.
Ten Apples Up On Top
by Theo LeSieg [aka Dr Seuss], illustrated by Roy McKie (Collins, 1961)
A lion, tiger and dog give each other a lesson in counting (and outrageous one-upmanship) when they compete to see who can balance the most apples on their heads. This rambunctious story has stayed with beginner readers well into their adult years.
Nick Cave’s ‘Red Right Hand’ à la Dr Seuss
by DrFaustusAU (posted on DeviantArt, 2015)
Given the Geisel Estate’s unremitting alacrity in issuing Grinchishly killjoy cease-and-desist letters, we fear for this ten-page proof of concept, which shrewdly unites Nick Cave’s bleak, poetic lyrics with illustrations recapturing the sublime, murky backdrops that underscored much of Dr Seuss’s oeuvre