Book Reviews, Comments & Stories, Quotes, & Poetry & More
"Connections and Why They Matter"
Most of what happens in our life will spark a connection. Life connects with what has been found in books. Books connect with what happens in life. Use the connections to help you see more clearly. A love of reading and writing is what motivated the creation of this blog. Thank you for coming to the blog.
Dr. Seuss Enterprises, which preserves the author's legacy, announced this week six books – "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street," "If I Ran the Zoo," "McElligot's Pool," "On Beyond Zebra!," "Scrambled Eggs Super!," and "The Cat's Quizzer" – would no longer be printed. Mar 5, 2021
Why did this happen? The Republicans seemed convinced that the Democrats and President Biden were to blame. “Yes!” So what did the company that owns the rights to these books and Dr. Seuss’s family, who owns that company, find out about this book and decide to stop printing it? Read the review and re-read the book; maybe the answer is clear.
If Gerald McGrew ran the Zoo, he'd let all the animals go and fill it with more unusual beasts--a ten-footed lion, an Elephant-Cat, a Mulligatawny, a Tufted Mazurka, and many more.
It’s a pretty good zoo.
Said young Gerald McGrew
And the fellow that runs it
Seems proud of it too
The first documented appearance of the word nerd is as the name of a creature in Dr. Seuss's book If I Ran the Zoo (1950), in which the narrator Gerald McGrew claims that he would collectMerkleye, a Nerd, and a Seersucker too" for his imaginary zoo. The slang meaning of the term dates to 1951
If I Ran the Zoo was banned for the line "all wear their eyes at a slant,” which refers to the helpers, accompanied by an illustration of Asian stereotypes. Dr. Seuss’s books were positive and inspiring, but some earlier books had disturbing images of hurtful, racially stereotypical drawings. The good news is that we see an evolution in cartoons and books. His later works, such as The Sneetches or Horton Hears a Who!, emphasize inclusion and acceptance. Disney’s old movies and comics had racial implications, and even Mickey Mouse had some racial threads in his creation. Disney covered those events by adding disclaimers and referring to the problem as “outdated cultural depictions.”
