The new posthumously published Dr. Seuss book hits bookstores next week:
“What Pet Should I Get?”
http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-84052620/
I can’t wait!
What is your favorite Dr. Seuss book? What is your favorite Dr. Seuss character or book passage?
I love “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish”. It’s brilliant!
Green Eggs and Ham
The Grinch
“I do not like them, Sam-I-Am”
I can still recite the entire text of The Cat in the Hat and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish off the top of my head. I didn’t mean to memorize them, but I read them so often to my kids that it just happened.
I resent this. I need that mental space for usernames and passwords.
My favorite is One Fish, Two Fish, though, especially the part that says “Look what we found in the park in the dark. We will take him home. We will call him Clark. He will live in our house. He will grow and grow. Will our mother like this? We don’t know.”
You look at that passage differently as an adult than you did as a kid.
The Sneetches. Affected my world view.
Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches-
Had bellies with stars.
The Plain-Belly Sneetches-Had none upon thars.
Those stars weren’t so big. They were really so small.
You might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all.
But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches
Would brag, “We’re the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches.
With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they’d snort
“We’ll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!”
And whenever they met some, when they were out walking,
They’d hike right on past them without even talking.
…
All the rest of that day, on those wild screaming beaches,
The fix-it-up Chappie kept fixing up Sneetches.
Off again! On Again! In again! Out again!
Through the machines they raced round and about again,
Changing their stars every minute or two.
They kept paying money. They kept running through
Until neither the Plain nor the Star-Bellies knew
Whether this one was that one…or that one was this one
Or which one was what one …or what one was who.
Then, when every last cent
Of their money was spent,
The Fix-it-Up Chappie packed up
And he went.
And he laughed as he drove
In his car up the beach,
“They never will learn.
No. You can’t teach a Sneetch!”
But McBean was quite wrong. I’m quite happy to say
That the Sneetches got really quite smart on that day,
The day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches
And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches
That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars
And whether they had one, or not, upon thars.
Early literacy is my day gig. Each year our programs celebrate Seuss’s birthday with special events.
As it happens, I am NOT a fan of Seuss books! Didn’t like them as a kid, didn’t love reading them to my kids! Almost too nonsensical for me!
That said, when I lead workshops for parents/educators I often ask what is the first book that comes to mind when they think of children’s books they love(d). Without fail, the most often answered book is Green Eggs and Ham. 
I feel the same about Dr. Seuss, never really enjoyed reading it. But, yep…grew up on Green Eggs and Ham. Although the first book I learned to read wasn’t that (forget the title) but Run, Jane, Run…Run, Dick, Run.
Love, love, love Dr. Seuss. Don’t like how he’s been commercialized in ways he wouldn’t have consented to if he were still alive. that being said, like Lergmom says, “The Sneetches” contributed to who I am. Not just that story, but the othres in the book too, Zaxes and the Pale Green Pants With Nobody Inside Them.
Also “Yertle the Turtle.”–his Marxist book. 
Green Eggs and Ham was the first book I ever read, and students in my classes still often say this.
Loved “Happy Birthday to You” as a kid and secretly hoped it would happen like that some day. Also loved “On Beyond Z”, “And to Think I Saw it all on Mulberry STreet” and “One Fish Two Fish.”
“Bartholomew and the Oobleck” gave me nightmares.
Favorite quote - from The Cat in the Hat- “Look at me, look at me, look at me now; its fun to have fun, but you have to know how.”
As a family, we still quote the part (usually somewhat tongue-in-cheek) “its fun to have fun, but you have to know how” when our plans are going awry (bad job interview, broken pipe in basement, rainy beach vacation…)
I’m not a fan of the illustrations, but the first book I remember owning is “Green Eggs and Ham” and as the parent of a pciky eater it was always good to quote.
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan recently wrote:
Good enough for her, good enough for me.
“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (although I hate the Jim Carey movie version)
Quote: “Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!”
“Horton Hears a Who”
Quote: “A person’s a person, no matter how small."
The Jim Carrey version is an abomination that I’m pretty certain Seuss would never have allowed.
@scout59 you cited my favorite Dr. Seuss quote: A person’s a person no matter how small.
Dr. Seuss is seminal, of course, but he also should be credited with starting a whole tradition of books that are also classics. My kids loved Go Dog Go and we quote from it today (Do you like my hat?.. It’s a DOG party!) We also liked A Great Day for Up, because neither my kids nor I are morning people, but my husband is… he’d wake me and the kids by telling us it was a great day for up and somehow it made getting out of bed just a little bit easier.
I always loved the “person’s a person no matter how small quote,” especially since I’m short.
I don’t think I can pick a favorite. Love The Grinch (especially Cindy Lou Who), as well as The Lorax. Anyone know “Bartholomew and the Oobleck?,” where the king got tired of rain and snow and wanted something new to come from the sky. Hence, the gooey, green oobleck.
One Fish, Two Fish is also my favorite. “My hat is old, my teeth are gold, I have a bird I like to hold…”
I was a big fan of “Go Dog Go,” but that was P.D. Eastman. We read it with different voices for each character.
Favorite character: Horton, faithful and compassionate.
Favorite book: Hop on Pop, love the simple phonics of it.
“My father can read big words, too, like Constantinople and Timbuktu.”
We loved Go Dog, Go!
Especially the BIG dog party. I can still quote most of it from start to finish.
Dr. Seuss: probably The Cat in the Hat.
I saw a great exhibit in a gallery in La Jolla a few years ago with various ads and his collection of unorthodox taxidermy:
http://www.drseussart.com/taxidermy
I would like a Goo-Goo-Eyed Tasmanian Wolghast for my wall.
I enjoyed Yertle the Turtle as a child, that rhyming lesson in hubris. Should be required reading of all Presidential candidates.
I meant to add in my earlier post that my screen name here (and several other places) is a play on my name and the Barbaloots in The Lorax.
The Cat in the Hat.