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Get involved! NEA’s Read Across America Day is a nationwide reading celebration that takes place annually on March 2—Dr. Seuss’s birthday. Across the country, thousands of schools, libraries, and community centers participate by bringing together kids, teens, and books, and you can too! Incorporate these guides and activities to celebrate reading with young people.
Follow this link for ideas to celebrate reading
It's the birthday of a man considered to be one of the most popular best-selling children's book writers in American history and a man who revolutionized the way children learned to read, Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as 
He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, on this day in 1904. Geisel is the author of more than 60 children's books, including Horton Hears a Who! (1954), One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish(1960), Green Eggs and Ham (1960), Hop on Pop (1963), Oh, The Thinks You Can Think! (1975), The Butter Battle Book (1984), and of course the ever popular, The Cat in the Hat (1957). One of my favorites is Oh, The Places You'll Go (1990). It's a great gift for a graduate.
In 1937, Geisel published his first children's book," And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street", which he said was inspired by the rhythms of a steamliner cruiser he was on. He wrote the book, and much of the rest of his life's work, in rhyming anapestic meter, also called trisyllabic meter. The meter is very alluring and catchy, and Seuss's masterful use of it is a big part of why his books are so enjoyable to read.
William Spaulding, a publisher from Houghton Mifflin's educational division, thought that maybe a guy named Dr. Seuss, who'd published a few not-well-known but very imaginative children's books, might be able to write a book that would be really good for teaching kids how to read. He invited Dr. Seuss to dinner and said, "Write me a story that first-graders can't put down!"
Geisel spent nine months composing "The Cat in the Hat" which uses just 220 different words and is 1,702 words long. He was a meticulous reviser, and he once said: "Writing for children is murder. A chapter has to be boiled down to a paragraph. Every word has to count."
Within a year of publication, "The Cat in the Hat" was selling 12,000 copies a month; within five years, it had sold a million copies.
William Spaulding, a publisher from Houghton Mifflin's educational division, thought that maybe a guy named Dr. Seuss, who'd published a few not-well-known but very imaginative children's books, might be able to write a book that would be really good for teaching kids how to read. He invited Dr. Seuss to dinner and said, "Write me a story that first-graders can't put down!"
Geisel spent nine months composing "The Cat in the Hat" which uses just 220 different words and is 1,702 words long. He was a meticulous reviser, and he once said: "Writing for children is murder. A chapter has to be boiled down to a paragraph. Every word has to count."
Within a year of publication, "The Cat in the Hat" was selling 12,000 copies a month; within five years, it had sold a million copies.
Green eggs, ham and green bread were on the menu recently for the kindergartners as part of their Dr. Seuss celebration for Read Across America reading event.
So today might I suggest you revisit one of your favorite Dr. Seuss's book and share with a child. And really... green eggs and ham tastes pretty good but I'm not too sure about the green bread :)
So today might I suggest you revisit one of your favorite Dr. Seuss's book and share with a child. And really... green eggs and ham tastes pretty good but I'm not too sure about the green bread :)
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I had no idea writing "The Cat in the Hat" took Dr. Seuss nine months. But he's right. Writing for children is difficult. Not that I've done so. But every word counts and that requires tight writing.
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