Saturday, November 15, 2008

Dr. Seuss was Pretty Cool

Via Bookninja: a few of the stories behind the Dr. Seuss books. Not really new info, but still pretty cool (and some of it was quite new to me). I especially liked the bit about Green Eggs and Ham:
Green Eggs and Ham. Bennett Cerf, Dr. Seuss’ editor, bet him that he couldn’t write a book using 50 words or less. The Cat in the Hat was pretty simple, after all, and it used 225 words. Not one to back down from a challenge, Mr. Geisel started writing and came up with Green Eggs and Ham – which uses exactly 50 words. The 50 words, by the way, are: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you.
Can you imagine writing a book with only 50 words? Maybe I should make that a contest on here or something....

3 comments:

christine M said...

Could you write it in a book?
Could you write it with a hook?
I could write it in a book.
I could write it with a hook.
I could write it Sam I am.
I could write Green Eggs and Ham.

(yeah, okay, really I couldn't - Dr. Seuss was a quiet genius)

Sarah Y said...

Hi Beth, I've heard that before about the 50 words thing and every time I'm reminded I'm astounded again.

Unknown said...

It really is an amazing thing to write with so few words...and to basically re-invent children's literature like that...wow.