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13 phizz-whizzing facts about Roald Dahl | Nat Geo Kids

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13th September 2020 marks what would have been Roald Dahl’s 104th birthday!

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Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Ann Johnson (April 4, 1928 - May 28, 2014), was an American author and poet. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books of poetry. Maya took part in several plays, movies, and television shows spanning more than fifty years. She received dozens of awards and over thirty honorary doctoral degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of seventeen which made her famous.

Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the second child of Bailey Johnson, a doorman and navy dietitian, and Vivian (Baxter) Johnson, a nurse and card dealer. When Angelou was three, her parents' marriage ended, and her father sent her and her siblings to Stamps, Arkansas, alone by train, to live with their paternal grandmother Annie Henderson. Henderson's general store had done well during the Great Depression and World War II, and she "made wise and honest investments."

Four years later, the children's father returned them to their mother's care in St. Louis. At the age of 8, Angelou suffered a phsycological trauma and became mute for about 5 years. She and her brother were sent back to their grandmother.

A teacher and friend of her family, Mrs. Bertha Flowers, introduced Angelou to authors such as Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Douglas Johnson, and James Weldon Johnson. These authors would affect her life and career as well as other black female artists like Frances Harper, Anne Spencer, and Jessie Fauset. Angelou said that Flowers helped her speak again.

When Angelou was 14, she and her brother moved in with their mother once again, who had since moved to Oakland, California. During World War II, Angelou attended the California Labor School. Before graduating, she worked as the first black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco.

Before becoming a poet and writer, Angelou tried other occupations as a young adult. Maya worked as a fry cook, a dancer and performer, a cast member of the opera Porgy and Bess, coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and a journalist in Egypt and Ghana during the days of decolonization. She was an actor, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs.

Starting in 1982, she taught at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she held the first lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies. She was active in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.

During the 1990s, she made approximately eighty appearances a year as a lecturer, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's inauguration. She was the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961.

Angelou died of natural causes on the morning of May 28, 2014, in her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was 86 years old.

Awards and honors

Angelou was honored by universities, literary organizations, government agencies, and special interest groups. Her honors included a Pulitzer Prize nomination for her book of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie, a Tony Award nomination for her role in the 1973 play Look Away, and three Grammys for her spoken-word albums. She served on two presidential committees and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2000, the Lincoln Medal in 2008, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. Angelou was awarded over thirty honorary degrees.

Maya Angelou quotes

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."

"Courage is the most important of all the virtues because, without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently."

"You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it."

"The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise."

Interesting facts about Maya Angelou

"Maya" was a nickname given to Marguerite Ann by her brother.

After Angelou's rough childhood, she graduated from high school and gave birth to her son Guy a few weeks later.

Angelou became a calypso singer and dancer near San Francisco.

Angelou's literary talent was noticed by James O. Killens, the spiritual father of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. He encouraged her to join the Harlem Writers Guild.

Maya moved to Ghana in 1962 and worked as an administrator at the University of Ghana.

She accompanied Malcolm X back to the United States to help him build his Organization of Afro-American Unity.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed on her 40th birthday. In mourning, she refused to celebrate her birthday for years after his death, choosing instead to send flowers to Dr. King's widow.

Although she never attended college, Maya learned and experienced much in her adult life. She preferred to be referred to as "Dr."

Angelou wrote her works in a hotel room. She authored autobiographies, cookbooks, and even greeting cards.

She added the word "joy" when she signed her books.

Images for kids

Maya Angelou speaking at a rally for Barack Obama, 2008

Angelou at York College in February 2013

In Spanish: Maya Angelou para niños

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Marilyn Singer (born 3 October 1948) is an author of children's books in a wide variety of genres, including fiction and non-fiction picture books, juvenile novels and mysteries, young adult fantasies, and poetry.

Marilyn Singer was born in the Bronx, New York City on October 3, 1948, and lived most of her early life in North Massapequa ( Long Island), NY. She attended Queens College, City University of New York, and for her junior year, the University of Reading, England. She holds a B.A. in English from Queens College and an M.A. in communications from New York University.

In 1974, after teaching English in New York City high schools for several years, Marilyn began to write - initially film notes, catalogues, teacher's guides and film strips. Then, one day, when she was sitting in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Marilyn penned a story featuring talking insect characters she'd made up when she was eight. Encouraged by the responses she got, Marilyn wrote more stories and in 1976 her first book, The Dog Who Insisted He Wasn't, was published by E. P. Dutton.

Since then, Marilyn has published over one hundred books for children and young adults. Her genres are many and varied, including realistic novels, fantasies, non-fiction, fairy tales, picture books, mysteries and poetry.

Marilyn Singer lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York.

1971. Education: Attended University of Reading, UK, 1967-68; Queens College of the City University of New York, B.A. (cum laude), 1969; New York University, M.A., 1979.

Awards and nominations

Mirror, Mirror

Cybil Award for Poetry, 2011

ALA Notable, 2011

CLA/NCTE Notable, 2011

Nominee, Texas Bluebonnet Award

Capitol Choice Book

6 starred reviews

Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best, 2009 (Eggs and First Food Fight This Fall)

Orbis Pictus Honor Book, 2008 (Venom)

New York Public Library's One Hundred Best Titles for Reading and Sharing, 2007 (Venom)

NSTA-CBC Outstanding Science Trade Book, 2007 (What Stinks?)

Science Books & Film Best Trade Books, 2006 (What Stinks?)

New York Public Library, Best Books for the Teen Age, 2006

ALSC Notable Book, 2005 (Central Heating)

Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor Book, 2005 (Creature Carnival)

New York Public Library's "Best Books for the Teen Age," 2005

Nominee:ALA Best Book for Young Adults, 2004

NSTA-CBA Outstanding Science Trade Book, 2002 (Tough Beginnings: How Baby Animals Survive)

Canadian Children's Book Centre "Our Choice" Book, 2002

Children's Literature Choice Book, 2002

National Science Teachers Association/Children's Book Council Outstanding Science Trade Book for Students, 2002

Skipping Stones Honor Award Book for 2002

Society of School Librarians International Best Book for Science, 2001 (Tough Beginnings: How Baby Animals Survive)

Animal Behavior Society Children's Book Award, 2001 (A Pair of Wings)

Society of School Librarians International Best Book for Science for 2001

New York Public Library's "Best Books for the Teen Age," 2001 (I Believe in Water: Twelve Brushes with Religion)

Tayshas List, 2001-2

Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, 2000 (YALSA) (Stay True: Short Stories for Strong Girls)

Booklist's Top Ten Science Books, 2000 (On the Same Day in March)

NCSS-CBC Notable Book, 2000 (On the Same Day in March)

Runner-up, Publishers Weekly Best Religious Books of 2000

Cooperative Children's Book Center CCBC Link, Book of the Week, Dec 11, 2000

Finalist, YA category, Edgar Award, 1998 (Deal with a Ghost)

Nominee: Edgar Award, 1998 [1]

Society of School Librarians International Best Books, 1997-8

Scholastic Book Club selection (paperback), 1993

Scholastic Book Club selection (paperback), 1991

NCTE Notable Book, 1989

Best Illustrated Children's Books of 1989, The New York Times

Best Children's Books of 1989, Time magazine

Society of School Librarians International Best Books, 1998-9

ALA Best Book for Young Adults, 1983 (The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth)

An American Library Association Best Book, 1983

Maud Hart Lovelace Award, 1983 (It Can't Hurt Forever)

Children's Choice Award (IRA/CBC)

Turtle in July

NCTE Notable, 1989

New York Times Best Illustrated, 1989

Time magazine Best Children's Books of 1989

Reading Rainbow review book

Quotes, Interviews, Reviews & Media

Celebrating Poetry: Marilyn Singer, Part 1, Part 2

"I don't know if I have a single poem that defines me. A lot of people think of me as a "nature poet" because I love writing about the natural world. But I also like to create characters and use them as narrators, and I'm fond of really silly verse." [2]

Singer actually sits and writes with pen in hand for three to four hours a day. "But I think writing for twenty-four, it seems. I like to write in cafes, restaurants, subways-it's not fixed." [3]

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Sheldon Allan "Shel" Silverstein (September 25, 1930 - May 10, 1999) was an American writer, poet, singer-songwriter, musician, composer, cartoonist, screenwriter, and a children's author who is mostly known for his children's book The Giving Tree. He has won two Grammy Awards.

Although he's most known for his children's poetry, he also was good at many other things. In the 1950s, while he was serving in the U.S. armed forces, Silverstein drew cartoons for the Pacific Stars and Stripes, an American military newspaper.

Shel Silverstein also wrote plays. It was Ursula Nordstrom, a book editor, who suggested that he should write for children.

Silverstein's first book of poetry, Don't Bump the Glump! and Other Fantasies, was published in 1964. He's most well-known for his books A Light in the Attic, The Giving Tree, and Where the Sidewalk Ends. He has been compared to other writers, like A. A. Milne, Edward Lear, and Dr. Seuss. Shel Silverstein won multiple awards for his children's poetry books. Where the Sidewalk Ends won the Michigan Young Readers' Award in 1981, and Silverstein also won the George C. Stone Center for Children's Books Award twice in 1984. Two books of poetry were published after Shel Silverstein's death, Runny Babbit and Every Thing on It.

Silverstein also had success writing songs. Some of his poetry was based off of songs he had written.

As a songwriter, Silverstein wrote the 1969 Johnny Cash track "A Boy Named Sue", which peaked at number 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. That same year Silverstein also recorded it as a single on an album on RCA Records. It was produced by Chet Atkins.

His songs have been recorded and popularized by a wide range of other acts including Tompall Glaser, The Irish Rovers and Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show. He received two Grammy Awards as well as nominations at the Golden Globe Awards and Academy Awards.

He wrote Tompall Glaser's highest-charting solo single "Put Another Log on the Fire", "One's on the Way" and "Hey Loretta", and "25 Minutes to Go", sung by Johnny Cash, about a man on death row with each line counting down one minute closer.

He wrote the lyrics and music for most of the Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show songs on their first few albums, including "The Cover of "Rolling Stone"", "Freakin' at the Freakers' Ball," "Sylvia's Mother", "The Things I Didn't Say" and "Don't Give a Dose to the One You Love Most".

He wrote many of the songs performed by Bobby Bare, including "Rosalie's Good Eats Café", "The Mermaid", "The Winner", "Warm and Free", and "Tequila Sheila". He co-wrote with Baxter Taylor "Marie Laveau". The third album by Tompall Glaser contained eight songs by Silverstein and three by Silverstein and others.

In addition, Silverstein wrote "Hey Nelly Nelly", a 1960s-era folk song recorded by Judy Collins. Silverstein composed original music for several films. He played the guitar, piano, saxophone and trombone.

Personal life and death

Sheldon Allan Silverstein was born into a Jewish family in Chicago on September 25, 1930.

He grew up in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago, where he attended Roosevelt High School. He then attended the University of Illinois, from which he was expelled. He enrolled in the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, which he was attending when he was drafted into the U.S. Army; he served in Japan and Korea.

Though never married, Silverstein fathered two children, Shoshanna Jordan Hastings (June 30, 1970 - April 24, 1982) and Matthew De Ver (born November 10, 1984). Shoshanna died of an aneurysm at age 11, and the book A Light in the Attic is dedicated in her memory. Silverstein died at his home in Key West, Florida, of a heart attack on May 10, 1999, at the age of 68.

He died in Key West, Florida on May 10, 1999 after having a heart attack. He was 68 years old. However, Silverstein's great poetry is still enjoyed today.

Images for kids

"Now here's my plan...", Shel Silverstein's best known cartoon of the 1950s, became the title of his 1960 cartoon collection.

Ballantine Books published Shel Silverstein's 1956 collection of cartoons from Pacific Stars and Stripes, foreword by Bill Mauldin

The Rising Sun Performance Company's production of "The Lifeboat is Sinking", from An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein

In Spanish: Shel Silverstein para niños

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About Kit Wright

'The Magic Box' is probably Kit Wright's best known poem. Just like the magic box, his poetry contains an extraordinary collection of contrasts.

There are plenty of jokes and things to smile about. In Kit's books you'll meet a cast of crazy characters, including the dreadful Dave Dirt. And like Dave, the poems are never afraid of a bit of slobber or snot.

But tucked in amongst the humour, there are some poems that face up to the sad and the serious parts of life, like 'All of Us'. There are also poems to make us ponder, like 'Nothing else'. And there some poems that are simply magical - like 'The Magic Box''

And some poems manage to be comic and sad and thought-provoking and magical all at the same time.
Whether it's a poem of laughter or lament, Kit always reads with perfect rhythm and pace. Listen out in 'Heads or Tails', for his keen sense of comic timing.

Kit uses rhythm and rhyme as well as assonance and alliteration to create poems that sound pleasing to the ear. Some use repetition and refrain and sound almost like a song. Some are quite twisting for the tongue!

Kit's poems also offer some striking imagery. In 'All of Us', people are pictured as mussels clinging to the sea wall, pounded by the waves.

Continue reading

Kit's recording was made on 31 March 2003 at The Audio Workshop, London and was produced by Richard Carrington.

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About Liz Brownlee: Hello - I'm a poet and children's poet, in about 60 poetry anthologies, on all sorts of fabulously mad subjects like moondust and mys...

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Pat Mora is a poet and author as well as a children's literacy advocate. In this exclusive video interview with Reading Rockets, Pat Mora discusses her bilingual childhood and her literacy cause.Additional video conversations with Pat Mora, some in Spanish and meant especially for Spanish-speaking parents, are available on our sister website Colorín Colorado.

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Nikki Grimes was born in Harlem, but grew up in many different parts of New York. As a foster child from a broken home, she moved from place to place, always saying goodbye to new friends. Reading and writing became her survival tools.

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About Valerie Bloom

Family and food, storytelling and singing - these are the memories of Jamaica that are woven into Valerie's poetry. Older people are a particularly important part of Jamaican family life because of the wisdom they have to impart. As a child, Valerie spent a lot of time with her grandmother, and remembers her in several of her poems.

Valerie Bloom writes some of her poetry in Jamaican dialect, or patois. If you don't find it easy understand these poems when you read them on the page, you will almost certainly find it much easier when you listen! Try 'Two Seasons'. When Valerie first came to Britain she was very struck by the weather, and this poem is about the difference between British and Jamaica seasons. Listen to the way she gives character to the verbs - 'tease', 'whisper', 'bubble'. Some of her poems use standard English. And some use a mixture of the two.

In the Caribbean, poetry, music and dance are not seen as separate things - so a poem can also involve singing and dancing. Valerie's poems draw on this Caribbean tradition, and many sound very musical. In fact most are written to be performed.

Valerie's poems draw on Caribbean folk tradition, using riddles, question and answer and rap. Many have very regular rhythms and rhyme - which makes them great to perform.

Continue reading

Valerie's recording was made on 13 February 2003 at The Audio Workshop, London and was produced by Richard Carrington.

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Valerie Bloom - Children's Poetry Archive

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I wrote on everything and everywhere. I remember my uncle catching me writing my name in graffiti on the side of a building. (It was not pretty for me when my mother found out.) I wrote on paper bags and my shoes and denim binders. I chalked stories across sidewalks and penciled tiny tales in notebook margins. I loved and still love watching words flower into sentences and sentences blossom into stories.

I also told a lot of stories as a child. Not "Once upon a time" stories but basically, outright lies. I loved lying and getting away with it! There was something about telling the lie-story and seeing your friends' eyes grow wide with wonder. Of course I got in trouble for lying but I didn't stop until fifth grade.

That year, I wrote a story and my teacher said "This is really good." Before that I had written a poem about Martin Luther King that was, I guess, so good no one believed I wrote it. After lots of brouhaha, it was believed finally that I had indeed penned the poem which went on to win me a Scrabble game and local acclaim. So by the time the story rolled around and the words "This is really good" came out of the otherwise down-turned lips of my fifth-grade teacher, I was well on my way to understanding that a lie on the page was a whole different animal - one that won you prizes and got surly teachers to smile. A lie on the page meant lots of independent time to create your stories and the freedom to sit hunched over the pages of your notebook without people thinking you were strange.

Lots and lots of books later, I am still surprised when I walk into a bookstore and see my name on a book or when the phone rings and someone on the other end is telling me I've just won an award. Sometimes, when I'm sitting at my desk for long hours and nothing's coming to me, I remember my fifth-grade teacher, the way her eyes lit up when she said "This is really good." The way, I - the skinny girl in the back of the classroom who was always getting into trouble for talking or missed homework assignments - sat up a little straighter, folded my hands on the desks, smiled, and began to believe in me.

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I wrote on everything and everywhere. I remember my uncle catching me writing my name in graffiti on the side of a building. (It was not pretty for me when my mother found out.) I wrote on paper bags and my shoes and denim binders.

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Jack Prelutsky writes wonderfully wacky poems that children find irresistible. In this exclusive video interview with Reading Rockets, Jack Prelutsky explains why he used to equate reading poetry with eating liver and considered writing poetry a hazard to his health.

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Mary Ann Hoberman was named the Children's Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation in 2008 and received the 2003 Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children from the National Council of Teachers of English.

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Former Children's Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis grew up in Gary, Indiana and earned a BA at Saint Joseph's College, an MA at Indiana University, and a PhD in economics at the Ohio State University. Lewis taught in the department of Business, Accounting and Economics at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio until 1998 when he became a full-time writer.

Lewis is the author of more than 50 books of poetry for children, which find their shape in both free and formal verse and engage a wide range of subjects from history to mathematics, Russian folklore to the animal kingdom. His books for children include Let's Celebrate Thanksgiving (2018); Let's Celebrate Christmas (2018); Spot the Plot: A Riddle Book of Book Riddles (2009), illustrated by Lynn Munsinger; New York Times Best Illustrated Book The Last Resort (2002), illustrated by Roberto Innocenti and translated into more than a dozen languages; The Shoe Tree of Chagrin (2001), illustrated by Chris Sheban, which won the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators' Golden Kite Award; and A Hippopotamusn't: And Other Animal Poems (1990), illustrated by Victoria Chess. His collaborations with other children's poets have yielded several collections, including Castles: Old Stone Poems (2006), with Rebecca Dotlich, illustrated by Dan Burr, and Birds on a Wire: A Renga ' Round the Town (2008), with Paul Janeczko, illustrated by Gary Lippincott.

His children's poetry has been widely anthologized, and his contributions to children's literature have been recognized with the 2011 Poetry Award from the National Council of Teachers of English and the Ohioana Awards' 2004 Alice Louise Wood Memorial Prize, among others. He edited the collection The Poetry of US: More than 200 poems that celebrate the people, places, and passions of the United States (2018).

His poetry for adults, which includes the collection Gulls Hold Up the Sky: Poems 1983-2010, frequently utilizes metaphor and humor to address themes of family and history. His adult poetry has received the support of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist grant.

Lewis served as the nation's third Children's Poet Laureate, now called the Young People's Poet Laureate, from 2011 to 2013. He lives in Westerville, Ohio.

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Former Children's Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis grew up in Gary, Indiana and earned a BA at Saint Joseph's College, an MA at Indiana University, and a PhD in economics at the Ohio State University. Lewis taught in the department of Business, Accounting and Economics at Otterbein College in...

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Theodor Seuss Geisel ( March 2, 1904 - September 24, 1991) was an American children's author and cartoonist. He is known for his work writing and illustrating more than 60 books under the pen name Dr. Seuss. His work includes many of the most popular children's books of all time, selling over 600 million copies and being translated into more than 20 languages by the time of his death.

Early years

Geisel was born and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts. His parents were Henrietta ( Seuss) and Theodor Robert Geisel. Mulberry Street in Springfield, made famous in his first children's book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, is near his boyhood home on Fairfield Street.

Geisel attended Dartmouth College, graduating in 1925. At Dartmouth, he joined the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and the humor magazine Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern, eventually rising to the rank of editor-in-chief. Arounf this time, Geisel began signing his work with the pen name "Seuss". He was encouraged in his writing by professor of rhetoric W. Benfield Pressey, whom he described as his "big inspiration for writing" at Dartmouth.

Upon graduating from Dartmouth, he entered Lincoln College, Oxford, intending to earn a Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil.) in English literature. At Oxford, he met his future wife Helen Palmer, who encouraged him to give up becoming an English teacher in favor of pursuing drawing as a career.

Early career

Geisel left Oxford without earning a degree and returned to the United States in February 1927. He immediately began submitting writings and drawings to magazines, book publishers, and advertising agencies.

His first nationally published cartoon appeared in the 16 July 1927, issue of The Saturday Evening Post. This single $25 sale encouraged Geisel to move from Springfield to New York City. Later that year, Geisel accepted a job as writer and illustrator at the humor magazine Judge, and he felt financially stable enough to marry Palmer. His first cartoon for Judge appeared on October 22, 1927, and Geisel and Palmer were married on November 29. Geisel's first work signed "Dr. Seuss" was published in Judge about six months after he started working there.

His work was in demand and began to appear regularly in magazines such as Life, Liberty and Vanity Fair.

The money Geisel earned from his advertising work and magazine submissions made him wealthier than even his most successful Dartmouth classmates. The increased income allowed the Geisels to move to better quarters and to socialize in higher social circles. They became friends with the wealthy family of banker Frank A. Vanderlip. They also traveled a lot: by 1936, Geisel and his wife had visited 30 countries together. They did not have children, neither kept regular office hours, and they had ample money. Geisel also felt that traveling helped his creativity.

Children's books

In 1936, Geisel and his wife were returning from an ocean voyage to Europe when the rhythm of the ship's engines inspired the poem that became his first children's book: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. Based on Geisel's varied accounts, the book was rejected by between 20 and 43 publishers. According to Geisel, he was walking home to burn the manuscript when a chance encounter with an old Dartmouth classmate led to its publication by Vanguard Press.

Geisel wrote four more books before the US entered World War II. This included The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins in 1938, as well as The King's Stilts and The Seven Lady Godivas in 1939, all of which were in prose, atypically for him. This was followed by Horton Hatches the Egg in 1940, in which Geisel returned to the use of verse.

During World War II, he took a brief hiatus from children's literature to illustrate political cartoons, and he also worked in the animation and film department of the United States Army where he wrote, produced or animated many productions including Design for Death, which later won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film.

After the war, Geisel returned to writing children's books, writing classics like If I Ran the Zoo (1950), Horton Hears a Who! (1955), The Cat in the Hat (1957), How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957), Green Eggs and Ham (1960), One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (1960), The Sneetches and Other Stories (1961), (1971), The Butter Battle Book (1984), and Oh, the Places You'll Go! (1990). He published over 60 books during his career, which have spawned numerous adaptations, including 11 television specials, five feature films, a Broadway musical, and four television series.

Cat in the Hat

In May 1954, published a report on illiteracy among school children which concluded that children were not learning to read because their books were boring.

William Ellsworth Spaulding, who was the director of the education division at Houghton Mifflin at that time, compiled a list of 348 words that he felt were important for first-graders to recognize. He asked Geisel to cut the list to 250 words and to write a book using only those words. Spaulding challenged Geisel to "bring back a book children can't put down".

Nine months later, Geisel completed The Cat in the Hat, using 236 of the words given to him. It retained the drawing style, verse rhythms, and all the imaginative power of Geisel's earlier works but, because of its simplified vocabulary, it could be read by beginning readers. The Cat in the Hat and subsequent books written for young children achieved significant international success and they remain very popular today.

For example, in 2009, Green Eggs and Ham sold 540,000 copies, The Cat in the Hat sold 452,000 copies, and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (1960) sold 409,000 copies-all outselling the majority of newly published children's books.

Geisel went on to write many other children's books, both in his new simplified-vocabulary manner (sold as Beginner Books) and in his older, more elaborate style.

Personal life

Geisel's wife Helen had a long struggle with illnesses. On October 23, 1967, Helen died.

Eight months later, on June 21, 1968, Geisel married Audrey Dimond. Although he devoted most of his life to writing children's books, Geisel had no children of his own, saying of children: "You have 'em; I'll entertain 'em." Dimond added that Geisel "lived his whole life without children and he was very happy without children." Audrey oversaw Geisel's estate until her death on December 19, 2018, at the age of 97.

Geisel died of cancer on September 24, 1991, at his home in the La Jolla community of San Diego at the age of 87. His ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.

Interesting facts about Dr. Seuss

As his family was of German descent, Geisel and his sister Marnie experienced anti-German prejudice from other children following the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

He was raised as a Missouri Synod Lutheran and remained in the denomination his entire life.

While Geisel was living in La Jolla, the United States Postal Service and others frequently confused him with fellow La Jolla resident Dr. Hans Suess, a noted nuclear physicist.

Geisel's birthday, March 2, has been adopted as the annual date for National Read Across America Day, an initiative on reading created by the National Education Association.

Geisel wrote most of his books in anapestic tetrameter, a poetic meter employed by many poets of the English literary canon. This is often suggested as one of the reasons that Geisel's writing was so well received.

Geisel made a point of not beginning to write his stories with a moral in mind, stating that "kids can see a moral coming a mile off."

Geisel's most famous pen name is regularly pronounced an anglicized pronunciation inconsistent with his German surname (the standard German pronunciation is). He himself noted that it rhymed with "voice" (his own pronunciation being). Alexander Laing, one of his collaborators on the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern, wrote of it:

You're wrong as the deuce
And you shouldn't rejoice
If you're calling him Seuss.
He pronounces it Soice (or Zoice)

Posthumous honors

On December 1, 1995, four years after his death, University of California, San Diego's University Library Building was renamed Geisel Library in honor of Geisel and Audrey for the generous contributions that they made to the library and their devotion to improving literacy.

In 2002, the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden opened in Springfield, Massachusetts, featuring sculptures of Geisel and of many of his characters.

In 2017, the Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum opened next to the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden in the Springfield Museums Quadrangle.

In 2008, Dr. Seuss was inducted into the California Hall of Fame. On March 2, 2009, the Web search engine Google temporarily changed its logo to commemorate Geisel's birthday (a practice that it often performs for various holidays and events).

In 2004, U.S. children's librarians established the annual Theodor Seuss Geisel Award to recognize "the most distinguished American book for beginning readers published in English in the United States during the preceding year". It should "demonstrate creativity and imagination to engage children in reading" from pre-kindergarten to second grade.

At Geisel's alma mater of Dartmouth, more than 90 percent of incoming first-year students participate in pre-matriculation trips run by the Dartmouth Outing Club into the New Hampshire wilderness. It is traditional for students returning from the trips to stay overnight at Dartmouth's Moosilauke Ravine Lodge, where they are served green eggs for breakfast. On April 4, 2012, the Dartmouth Medical School was renamed the Audrey and Theodor Geisel School of Medicine in honor of their many years of generosity to the college.

Dr. Seuss's honors include two Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, the Inkpot Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

Dr. Seuss has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at the 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard.

Dr. Seuss has been in Forbes' list of the world's highest-paid dead celebrities every year since 2001, when the list was first published.

Dr. Seuss was honored with a Google Doodle in March 2, 2009 in celebration of his 105th birthday.

Dr. Seuss quotes

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."

"You're in pretty good shape for the shape you are in."

"You're never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child."

Adaptations

For most of his career, Geisel was reluctant to have his characters marketed in contexts outside of his own books. However, he did permit the creation of several animated cartoons, an art form in which he had gained experience during World War II, and he gradually relaxed his policy as he aged.

The first adaptation of one of Geisel's works was a cartoon version of Horton Hatches the Egg, animated at Warner Bros. in 1942 and directed by Bob Clampett. It was presented as part of the Merrie Melodies series and included a number of gags not present in the original narrative.

Theatrical short films

Theatrical feature films

Television specials

Television series

In Spanish: Dr. Seuss para niños

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Several times a day, most days of the week, I receive email from students requesting biographical information for a school paper. I love getting email from kids who enjoy reading my poetry, so feel free to drop me a line and say "hi." As you can imagine, though, I get a lot of email. So please let me save you a little time by telling you a bit about myself. If you have any questions that aren't answered below or on the Frequently Asked Questions page, please feel free to contact me. I will be happy to answer any specific questions that are not answered here.

Who I Am

I am 61 years old and I was born on February 20, 1962 in Berkeley, California. I grew up in Fresno and San Diego, California.

I now live in a big old house in Spokane, Washington, with my wife Ann, and our two cats, Thomas and Sancho.

My Poetry

My first children's poem - Scrawny Tawny Skinner - was written in 1994 after having dinner with a friend whose 4-year-old daughter did everything she could to get out of eating her dinner. Shortly after that, I wrote two more poems, My Foot Fell Asleep and Binkley . During 1995 and 1996, I wrote about three or four poems a year (including You Can Never Be Too Careful and A Meloncholy Tale , whenever the mood struck me.

In early 1997 I decided I would like to write an entire book of children's poems. In 1998, I published my first collection of poetry, entitled My Foot Fell Asleep . I published a sequel called I've Seen My Kitchen Sink in 1999 and a third book, Sailing Off to Singapore , in 2000. The Aliens Have Landed at Our School! was published by Meadowbrook Press in 2001. My first collection of poems about school, When the Teacher Isn't Looking: and Other Funny School Poems was published by Meadowbrook Press in 2005. I have since published many more books with a number of other publishers including Scholastic , Chronicle Books , National Geographic Learning , Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Hameray Publishing, and Sourcebooks Jabberwocky .

My poems have also appeared in magazines, school textbooks, and numerous anthologies of funny poetry, as well as on television, audio CDs and even restaurant placemats.

I have put together this web site to share some of my poems with kids around the world. I try to post a new poem every week for you to read and grade, so please check back regularly to read new, funny poetry.

Publications

Books

I have written the following books:

The Elephant Repairman (Purple Room Publishing 2022)

My Dog Likes to Disco (Purple Room Publishing 2021)

Pup and Duck: Let's Play Ball (Purple Room Publishing, 2020)

How to Write a Great Poem (Hameray Publishing, 2020)

Deep Sea Dance (Purple Room Publishing, 2019)

My Cat Knows Karate (Purple Room Publishing, 2018)

One Minute Till Bedtime (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers 2016)

Believe it or Not, My Brother Has a Monster (Scholastic, 2015)

Bigfoot Is Missing! (with J. Patrick Lewis, Chronicle, 2015)

The Biggest Burp Ever (Purple Room Publishing, 2014)

Kiss, Kiss Good Night (Scholastic, 2013)

The Armpit of Doom (Purple Room Publishing, 2012)

I'm Growing a Truck in the Garden (Collins Educational, 2012)

The Story of the Sun and the Moon (National Geographic Learning, 2012)

The Ultimate Top Secret Guide to Taking Over the World (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2011)

MORE BEARS! (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2010)

The Tighty-Whitey Spider (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2010)

My Hippo Has the Hiccups: And Other Poems I Totally Made Up (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2009)

Revenge of the Lunch Ladies (Meadowbrook Press, 2007)

Santa Got Stuck in the Chimney (with Linda Knaus, Meadowbrook Press, 2006)

When the Teacher Isn't Looking and Other Funny School Poems (Meadowbrook Press, 2005)

The Aliens Have Landed at Our School! (Meadowbrook Press, 2001)

Sailing Off to Sinagapore (Purple Room Publishing, 2001)

I've Seen My Kitchen Sink (Purple Room Publishing, 1999)

My Foot Fell Asleep (Purple Room Publishing, 1998)

Anthologies

I selected the poems for this anthology:

My poems appear in the following anthologies:

What I Did On My Summer Vacation (Meadowbrook Press, 2009)

I Hope I Don't Strike Out! (Meadowbrook Press, 2008)

I've Been Burping in the Classroom (Meadowbrook Press, 2007)

My Teacher's in Detention (Meadowbrook Press, 2006)

Dinner with Dracula (Meadowbrook Press, 2006)

Peter, Peter, Pizza Eater (Meadowbrook Press, 2006)

If I Ran the School (Scholastic, 2005)

My Dog Does My Homework (Scholastic, 2004)

Rolling in the Aisles (Meadowbrook Press, 2004)

If Kids Ruled the School (Meadobrook Press, 2004)

I Like it Here at School (Scholastic, 2003)

Miles of Smiles: Kids Pick the Funniest Poems Book #3 (Meadowbrook Press, 1998)

No More Homework! No More Tests! (Meadowbrook Press, 1996)

A Bad Case of the Giggles: Kids Pick the Funniest Poems Book #2 (Meadowbrook Press, 1994)

Kids Pick the Funniest Poems (Meadowbrook Press, 1991)

Audio CDs

I have written lyrics for the following music CDs:

What a Ride! by Eric Herman and the Invisible Band (Butter-Doc Productions, 2007)

Snail's Pace by Eric Herman and the Invisible Band (Butter-Doc Productions, 2007)

Snow Day by Eric Herman and the Invisible Band (Butter-Dog Productions, 2006)

Monkey Business by Eric Herman and the Invisible Band (Butter-Dog Productions, 2005)

The Kid in the Mirror by Eric Herman and the Invisible Band (Buter-Dog Productions,
2003)

Organizations

I am a full member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators .

Miscellany

I met my wife, Ann, in Prague during a one-year trip around Europe .

In addition to writing poetry, my main hobby is learning new languages. Currently, I am learning to read, write, and speak Brazilian Portuguese using a combination of DuoLingo, Pimsleur, and Uncle Brazil .

I'm proud to admit, I love Marmite .

I'm also a big fan of They Might Be Giants Here's a picture of me with John Flansberg of TMBG.

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Several times a day, most days of the week, I receive email from students requesting biographical information for a school paper. I love getting email from kids who enjoy reading my poetry, so feel free to drop me a line and say "hi." As you can imagine, though, I get a lot of email.

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Paul Fleischman (born 1952) is an American writer of children's books. He and his father Sid Fleischman have both won the Newbery Medal from the American Library Association recognizing the year's "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children". For the body of his work he was the United States author nominee for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2012.

Paul Fleischman was born in Monterey, California and raised in Santa Monica, California, the son of children's book author Sid Fleischman. At 19, he took a cross-country bicycle and train trip which ended with him living in a 200-year-old house in New Hampshire. The experience led to his historical fiction dealing with the Puritans' Indian wars, colonial peddlers, Philadelphia's yellow fever epidemic, and the Civil War. He attended college at University of California Berkeley and the University of New Mexico. Before writing full-time, he worked as a bagel baker, library shelver, bookstore clerk, and proofreader, the last leading to his grammar watchdog groups Colonwatch and The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to English.

Fleischman's first books were written while he was still in college, inspired by his reading of folklore. His musical interests are reflected in his collections of poems for two and four speakers, so-called chamber music for speaking voices. Multiple points of view have been a hallmark of his fiction, beginning with (1993), one of the first multiple-viewpoint novels published for children. This format was further explored in , the 50-voice aural collage Seek, the seven-plays-in-one Zap, and the joined Cinderella variants in Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal. The importance of history, community, art, and imagination have been frequent themes in his work.

Fleischman won the 1989 Newbery Medal for Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, only two years after his father won it for The Whipping Boy. Graven Images received a Newbery Honor award in 1983. He won a National Book Award nomination for Breakout in 2003, the 1994 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction for Bull Run, the 2002 California Young Reader Medal for Weslandia, Boston Globe-Horn Book Award honors for Joyful Noise and Saturnalia, the PEN Center USA Literary Award for The Dunderheads (2010), and the Christopher Medal for The Matchbox Diary (2013). Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines (2014) was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, received the Green Earth Book Award from The Nature Generation, and won the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award. Paul Fleischman has also won awards from the Commonwealth Club of California and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

For the body of his work, he was the United States' nominee for the 2012 international Hans Christian Andersen Award. He also received the Leo Politi Golden Author Award given by California Readers in 2005 and the Horace Mann Upstanders Lifetime Achievement Award given by Antioch University in 2014.

"Swat Radio", The New Yorker (November 24, 1997)

A Book: Literary & Visual Musings on the Letter A [contributor], The Scribes 8 (1997)

Logomaniacs (2010), play

He Walked Among Us (New York: Argo Navis, 2012), novel

"Sound and Sense", The Horn Book Magazine (September/October 1986)

"Sid Fleischman", Horn Book (July/August 1987)

"Paul Fleischman", Something About the Author Autobiography Series, Vol. 20, pp. 219-31

"The Accidental Artist", School Library Journal (March 1999)

For children

The Birthday Tree (1979, 2008)

The Animal Hedge (1983, 2003)

Rondo in C (1988)

Shadow Play (1990)

Time Train (1991)

Weslandia (

Lost: A Story in String (2000)

Sidewalk Circus (2004)

Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella (2007)

The Dunderheads (2009)

The Dunderheads Behind Bars (2012)

The Matchbox Diary (2013)

First Light, First Life: A Worldwide Creation Story (2016)

Fearsome Giant, Fearless Child: A Worldwide Jack and the Beanstalk Story (2019)

Half-A-Moon Inn (1980)

Finzel The Farsighted (1983), illustrated by Marcia Sewall

Phoebe Danger, Detective (1983)

Graven Images (1982, 2006), collection

Coming-and-Going Men (1985), collection

Townsend's Warbler (1992)

Copier Creations (1993)

Dateline: Troy (1996, 2006)

"Interview with a Shrimp", When I Was Your Age, Vol. Two (1999)

Cannibal in the Mirror (2000)

Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines (2014)

No Map, Great Trip: A Young Writer's Road to Page One (2019)

Alphamaniacs: Builders of 26 Wonders of the Word (2020)