Major Works

With over 17.5 million copies sold Green Eggs and Ham is Dr. Seuss’s best-selling book and could be considered his most popular. This book was first published in 1960 as part of his Beginner Books Series. “Featuring a combination of kid appeal, supportive vocabulary, and bright, cheerful art, Beginner Books will encourage a love of reading in children ages 3–7,” (Penguin Random House 2, n.d.). Because of its popularity several new editions of the book have been published. These include graphic novels, a magnetic play book, a painting book, an electronic book with silly sounds, and a lift the flap board book. There are also two separate tv versions adapted from the book, one in 1973 and a current series playing on Netflix.

In this classic Seuss tale, we find the main character, Sam-I-Am encouraging another character to try green eggs and ham. When he is constantly told no Sam-I-Am comes up with increasingly stranger places to try the meal.  In the end the character decides that he will try the green eggs and ham to get Sam-I-Am to stop bothering him. When he does finally try them, he discovers that he does like them. What a great way to encourage kids to try new things!

In my preschool classroom the most obvious activity that we do based on the book Green Eggs and Ham is to make and eat green eggs and ham. It never fails that after reading the book most of the kids are excited to try this meal because it is something unusual. Since my classroom is for 2-year-olds we do other simple activities with this book like learning about the color green and a counting activity where we use paper pieces that look like eggs and ham and the children count them as they add them to a plate.

This third Dr. Seuss book is also part of the Beginner Books Collection. “Beginner Books are fun, funny, and easy to read,” (Penguin Random House 3, n.d.). One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish definitely fits that description. Since its first release in 1960 it has sold over 13.5 million copies. It placed #13 on Publishers Weekly list of “All-Time Bestselling Children’s Books” in 2001 and in 2007 it could be found in the National Education Association’s list of “Teachers’ top 100 books for children.” Netflix has also recently released a cartoon based on the book titled Dr. Seuss’s Red Fish, Blue Fish. There are currently 2 seasons available.

 The story starts out as a simple rhyme about fish in the sea and quickly turns into a collection of silly stories about increasingly zanier creatures. Throughout the book two young children introduce us to these creatures asking us if we would like to have them as our pet. They share which ones they like and which ones they would prefer not to have. In the end they are ready to drift off to sleep cuddled up to their pet Zeep. The book sends us off saying, “Today is gone. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one. Every day, from her to there, funny things are everywhere,” (Dr. Seuss, 1960).

There are a plethora of ways this book can be used in the classroom. The title itself, One fish two fish red fish blue fish, is a great jumping off point for number and color exploration. While these are important lessons to learn, my favorite way to use this book in the classroom is to encourage the children to use their imaginations. The creatures in the book are silly and unusual. A great circle time discussion would be asking the children which creature in the book they’d like to have a why. The activity could then be extended by asking the children to create their own creature. This book is great for the imagination!