I turned 26 on Monday, so when I happened upon Dr. Seuss's Happy Birthday to You! and realized I'd never read it before, I scooped it right up. As with other Seuss books such as Oh, the Thinks You Can Think! and Oh, the Places You'll Go!,
this book directly addresses the reader, though in this case the good
doctor doesn't have any sage advice to offer. Rather, he weaves a
vibrant tapestry of fantastical happenings, all revolving around whoever
is lucky enough to have been born on that day.
"I wish we
could do what they do in Katroo," he begins, and he proceeds to
demonstrate just how exactly the citizens of Katroo come together to
create a memorable birthday celebration. This must be an exhausting city
in which to live, because you would imagine that someone's birthday
would fall on most, if not all, days, so there would be no time to
recover from one day's revelry before preparing for the next.
Much of the action involves the Great Birthday Bird, and I presume that
he is only one of several; otherwise, if two citizens share a birthday,
one of them is definitely going to get the short end of the stick. The
bird guides the birthday boy or girl through the day, encouraging them
to eat all manner of delectable foods and sniff the rarest and most
glorious of jungle flowers; to hitch a ride on a cable car pulled by
goats and accept such impractical gifts as a Time-Telling Fish or a
good-natured Hippo-Heimer; to listen to a chorus of imaginary
instruments and read a birthday message spelled out by Herrings.
A more nonsensical Seuss book would be hard to find, and indeed one
wonders whether half of these things are something you would even want,
though the closing sentiment - "I wish I could do all these great things
for you" - is touching. Still, this book has more than its share
of what appear to be rhymes for their own sake, which leads to a lot of
superfluous-sounding lines. I've not yet decided whether the following
series of absurdities fits into that category: "If you'd never been
born, well then what would you be? / You might be a fish! Or a
toad in a tree! / You might be a doorknob! Or three baked potatoes! /
You might be a bag full of hard green tomatoes! / Or worse than all
that... Why, you might be a WASN'T! / A Wasn't has no fun at all. No, he
doesn't."
The pictures are certainly bright and eye-catching,
and the book on the whole is obviously the product of a very
imaginative mind. That said, I found it strange, and not in the
delightful way I've come to expect from Seuss. Reading this book is a
fun way to help recognize a child's birthday, but I suspect Happy Birthday to You! wouldn't get a whole lot of use outside of those times.
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