Children’s book classics such as Green Eggs and Ham (1960) and The Cat and the Hat (1957) will be available in ebook format for the first time beginning on September 24, says publisher Random House Children’s. Written and illustrated by the beloved Dr. Seuss (aka Theodor Geisel), 15 titles will make their digital debut on that date, and by November, a total of 41 ebooks will be available for children, parents, and educators. All the Seuss ebook titles will keep the original layouts and iconic illustrations from their print editions.

“The introduction of ebook editions to the Dr. Seuss canon is an exciting milestone that we know will enhance Dr. Seuss’s legacy,” says Susan Brandt, president of licensing & marketing for Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. “When Dr. Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat more than fifty years ago, he revolutionized the way children learn to read. Today, we celebrate that his impact on reading will thrive for generations to come with these new ebooks.”

Dr. Seuss’s books have sold more than 600 million print book copies worldwide.
The new digital versions also will be published simultaneously as Read & Listen editions that feature brand-new audio recordings of the full text. Perennial favorites such as Horton Hears a Who! (1954); Oh, the Places You’ll Go! (1990); and The Lorax (1971) continue to top the bestseller lists decades after their original publication. Every year, people across the country celebrate Dr. Seuss Day on the author’s birthday, March 2. This year marked the 75th anniversary of The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1938), his second published children’s book, as well as the 50th anniversary of Dr. Seuss’s ABC (1963, all Random).

See also:
E-Seuss: The Cat in the Hat and Other Dr. Seuss Titles Go Digital, Coming Very Soon as Ebooks

Fatima Ptacek with Manhattan kindergarteners dressed as The Cat in the Hat during Read Across America Day. Photo by Luke Fontana.

A lucky kindergarten class in midtown Manhattan’s PS/IS 111 received a real treat on March 1 in honor of Saturday’s Read Across America Day. Wearing their handmade, Cat in the Hat-inspired paper hats and sitting patiently in their school library, they were greeted by a stellar storytime volunteer with a recognizable voice. “Hola, I’m Dora,” Fátima Ptacek began, as the stunned, pint-sized audience members’ hands flew to their mouths.

A member of the Screen Actors Guild Foundation children’s literacy program BookPALS, the 12-year-old actress—fresh off her leading role in the Academy Award-winning short Curfew—shared Susan Middleton Elya’s No More Por Favor (Putnam, 2010) and the Dr. Seuss classic Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? with the rambunctious crowd. Ptacek encouraged kids to read as much as they could because “reading helps you take all kinds of journeys. When you read you become part of the story.” She also praised the children present (who all spoke at least one other language at home) for their knowledge and creativity.

The reading was co-hosted by the Brooke Jackman Foundation (BJF), an organization headed by Erin Jackman, a former teacher at the school, who lost her sister on 9/11; BJF aims to be a living legacy to the 23-year-old who had dreams of becoming a social worker and had a passion for literacy and helping children. The PS/IS 111’s school library is named after Brooke Jackman and has been stocked by the organization, in addition to its after-school library.

PS/IS 111′s principal Irma Medina said she appreciates her school’s active relationship with both the BJF and BookPALS, and especially Ptacek’s participation. “Kids should see other kids reading, and that it’s active part of our daily lives. In English, Spanish, any language, it enriches us,” she told School Library Journal. She also praised her school’s librarian, Rose Guerrero, who is new to the school this year but has already immersed herself in the school’s day-to-day routine, she said.

Ptacek, whose favorite books include the “Sisters Grimm” (Abrams) and “Harry Potter” (Scholastic) series, and Jon Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, credits her librarians, teachers, and parents for instilling in her the love for reading. She encourages librarians to promote reading, and to use any technique or method possible to give the power of literacy to the next generation, because “books are beautiful.”

BFJ works with many other libraries, schools, homeless shelters, and Family Justice Centers, and has distributed 20,000 Brooke Packs (backpacks filled with books and school supplies) to children and families in need in the New York tri-state area. BJF most recently partnered with BookPALS in December at an event for Sandy victims in East Rockaway, NY.

“We have the books, and they bring them to life,” said Erin Jackman, executive director of the BJF.

For Seuss apps, Oceanhouse Media is the place to go. To date they’ve produced more than 40 Seuss titles, including a few free, lite versions; a Seuss bookshelf to store the digital editions; and some games and novelty items; all available for iOS and Android devices. One of those items is the Dr. Seuss Camera – Happy Birthday to You! Edition, which allows users to create birthday cards to decorate and store or email. It’s free, so get going!

In anticipation of the b’day, we asked a couple of our reviewers to take a look at some of some of the new Oceanhouse releases and what one Seuss character calls some, “very serious nonsense.”

Celebrating it’s 75^th anniversary this year, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins ($4.99) is one of Dr. Seuss’s earliest books and unlike many of the author’s later titles, this one doesn’t rhyme. Bartholomew is a small boy living in the Kingdom of Didd. One day, when a procession brings King Derwin down the street, the monarch abruptly halts his carriage and censures the child for not removing his headwear. But every time Bartholomew removes his hat, another appears in its place and no one, including the King’s wise men, magicians, and archers can figure out how to stop the profusion of caps. Finally, the 500th and final hat arrives, bejeweled and covered in ostrich and cockatoo plumes. It’s so magnificent, that the King purchases it for 500 pieces of gold. Seuss’s original art is retained with the bright red of Bartholomew hat(s) the only dash of color on the interior pages. Parents or children can read and record their own narration, or listen to John Bell’s. A minor flaw: there’s no pause button for this rather long story. However, listeners have the option to continue the tale or begin it again once the app is turned off and restarted.—Melissa Stock,Arapahoe Library District, Englewood, CO.

In Seuss’s Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose ($4.99), multiple critters from Bingle Bugs to squirrels build increasingly complex homes in the gentle Thidwick’s antlers. With guests atop the moose’s head, his herd at first shuns him, then refuses to let him join them on their winter migration to the southern shore of Lake Winna-Bango, and finally hunters chase the over-burdened moose until they have him in their sights. The author concludes the tale with a satisfying turn: Thidwick sheds his antlers (as Moose do once a year), and without firing a shot the hunters have a rack of horns to display, complete with all the uninvited guests…stuffed “as they should be.” The art features drawings with splashes of blue and orange. Shaun Conde’s narration is pleasant and multiple touch points on each page trigger word labels that zoom forward for emergent readers. An endearing character and story.—Debbie Whitbeck, West Ottawa Public Schools, Holland, MI

It starts with a small creature and a small yawn, and it spreads throughout the world until the “Who’s-Asleep-Score” is registering in the millions, then billions of snoozing bodies. Typical Seussian creatures from an Offt  (weighing in at minus one pound) and Biffer-Baum Birds to a Jedd and a few real animals (a Moose and a Goose) are snoring, sleepwalking, and dreaming in Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book ($4.99). The story ends with the suggestion that listeners, too, turn out their lights, “Good night.” The colorful art features animals of fantastical shapes and stripes. Read or listen to this tale–and all these contagious yawns—when a five-minute story won’t work the bedtime magic.

In Hunches in Bunches ($3.99), hunches pull a fidgeting, indecisive boy in a different directions. Fly a kite? Skate? Climb a tree? Take a bath? Once our character finally makes up his mind what he wants to do he’s stopped by one creature after another: the Homework Hunch, the Very Odd Hunch, the Spookish Hunch, and others, all offering suggestions or demanding that he does what they say. The solution? The boy duplicates himself until “an awful lot of me” help him make a decision—to follow a munch hunch into the kitchen. The colorful art is clear and sharp against the illuminated background. Shaun Conde’s expressive narration and slight sound effects enhance the silliness.

Standard in Oceanhouse Media apps are three options for listening and reading, words highlighted as they are read, and the ability to repeat text and to hear the labels of objects voiced. The newest releases allow listeners to record their own narration, and share it with others who own the app if they choose.

While some of Seuss’s early stories are outdated, and others seem incredibly long by today’s standards, these and many others will long live in children’s imaginations.

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All things Dr. Seuss were in the air Monday at the 42nd branch of the New York Public Library, including a sea of students sporting Cat in the Hat  hats in an attempt to set a Guinness Book World Record, a read-aloud of Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? by NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon, and even a visit from the Cat in the Hat himself. These festivities marked Random House Children’s Books and Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ launch of the “Hats Off to Dr. Seuss!” campaign, a yearlong celebration of the famed children’s book author that coincides with the 75th anniversary of The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins.

This first stop for the campaign also included an announcement of a new partnership between Random House Children’s Books, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, and the Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation, an organization dedicated to finding a cure for pediatric cancer.