Dr. Seuss: Young Author and Artist

by Kathleen V. Kudlinski, Meryl Henderson (Illustrator)

One of the most popular series ever published for young Americans, these classics have been praised alike by parents, teachers, and librarians. With these lively, inspiring, fictionalized biographies -- easily read by children of eight and up -- today's youngster is swept right into history.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Childrens

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 2005

About the author

Kathleen Kudlinski is the author of 40 children’s books. Her works range from picture books to the YA level and include natural history, biographies and historical novels.
When not writing, she is a popular speaker and writing instructor. Building on a BS in Biology and six years of classroom teaching experience, Kathleen later trained as a “Master Teaching Artist” with the Connecticut Commission on the Arts as well as presenting at regional and national conferences. Now she eagerly Skypes with classroom, book-, and home-school groups, world-wide.

In her spare time, she paints and leads several SCBWI (Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators) critique groups, and teaches writing for children.

She writes at home beside a deep, wild lake in Guilford CT or at her woodland cabin in Weathersfield, VT with a a rescue macaw clinging to her shoulder and a pitbull warming her feet.

Reviews

[Cindy aka "The Book Fairy"]

What another lovely bio by Kathleen Kudlinski! She writes such smooth flowing and totally enjoyable accounts of famous people :) So much I hadn't known about Dr.Seuss....hadn't realized he was German nor what his family had been like. He sounded like such a likeable and entertaining man who actually ended up making such a tremendous difference in the world of reading, experienced ill treatment and prejudice sadly with others assuming he was Jewish yet persevered to go onto to be such a prolific and beloved author. He had quite the imagination and was so talented. He championed for kids to have access to books to help with their literary ability plus for environmental reasons, how everyone was important no matter who and how young. What a fascinating story!

[Ainsley]

I have the same birthday as Dr. Seuss (TOMORROW!!,) On March 2nd.Anyway, I always want to learn abou th him and during library time I check out a book related to him. I read this is 2 days, and, I've randomly been spewing out facts since I got off the bus. Now my mom wants to read it! It's good and I reccomend it.

[Esther May]

I like reading about what the childhood of famous people was like. Dr. Seuss had a really different life than I would have thought. If reading this with a child, be aware that it talks about the suicide of his wife.

[Charlotte]

I usually love these books, but I didn't love this one at all. Dr. Suess had a bunch of things in his life that are not that nice to read about with your little boys - read "Who Was Dr. Suess?" instead. It handles everything much better.

[Colin]

We read another book in this series - a biography of Harry Houdini - as part of our homeschool writing curriculum (Writing With Ease) - this is a beautiful and comprehensive biography of one of the greatest authors of all time - Dr. Seuss! I especially like that the book talks about how he overcame his prejudices over time and corrected mistakes of his past as he got older . . . great stuff for kids to know, that even adults need to learn from their mistakes.

[Christy]

One of the most popular series ever published for young Americans, these classics have been praised alike by parents, teachers, and librarians. With these lively, inspiring, fictionalized biographies -- easily read by children of eight and up -- today's youngster is swept right into history.

[Britt Guild]

I thought this was a fantastic story of how Ted Geisel became Dr. Seuss. As most people, I too am fascinated by the man that changed childrens' literature. I was pleasantly surprised at how the book followed a very detailed timeline that included facts about his life that I had never heard about before. I was inspired by the conversations the book described between Ted Geisel and his high school English teacher. The famous Dr. Seuss was influenced and encouraged by his teacher to follow his passion in writing. I am thankful to know that. This book did a great job in incorporating how history and events influenced Ted Geisel as a person and his writing, cartoons, and the messages he hoped to bring to his audience. This is a wonderful read to not only find out how Ted Geisel became the beloved Dr. Seuss, but how the realities of injustice, prejudice, and illiteracy drove much of his work.

This book is an example of a biography as it is written about Ted Geisel by someone else. This book shows how students are able to read a biography in a creative way that is not boring or only fact based. I have to admit that when I hear the word biography, I am not always excited to read the text. But as our text suggests, students do love to read real accounts of real people, so this book is perfect in encouraging this excitement. This book can be used to illustrate the biography genre as well as how real life events impact individuals. I would read this story aloud to my students when studying World War history or at the beginning of March to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday. Reading this book can allow students to then pick apart some of Dr. Seuss' work and see the messages his stories contain beyond the colorful quirky characters and rhyming words. This book would be appropriate for middle elementary grade levels (3rd & 4th). I would include the book for 5th grade as a tool to build on historical events that occurred during World War II and how history impacted authors such Ted Geisel.

[Maddie Smith]

"Dr. Seuss: Young Author and Artist" by Kathleen Kudlinski is a marvelous biography based on the life story of Dr. Seuss.

This book was about Dr. Seuss and how he became a famous author and artist. When Ted, also known as Dr. Seuss, was a young boy he was always making up stories that included unique characters. He would write and draw wherever he went and later became the school artist and journalist all throughout middle school and high school. He went to Dartmouth College and was a cartoonist for a humor magazine called the Jack-O-Lantern. He was also the first freshman on campus to be on the staff. After he was finished with college he began writing children's books and that's how Dr. Seuss became to be.

I recommend this book to people who enjoy learning about famous people as well as people who are interested in Dr. Seuss. I enjoyed this book very much because of it's contents and interesting facts. This book has 177 pages.

[Momma Aimee]

AMAZING. Theodor was an amazing man. THIS Biography was written for teh 8 to 12 year old; so it is very intresting to see how several 'adult tpoices' are covered; such as Probition and the loss of teh family brewery, wwII and then his remarraige only a year after his wife's sucide. I shall be intrested to read about these topics in an adult biography and see a bit more of the grit.

Nonetheless I had no idea the had worked in movies; nor won a Puliter Prize. Children's book or not I did learn more than i knew about the great author and man before.

I admit I cried reading about his dead; he was to me, as to so many my age, family.

[Katie]

To have such an insightful and inspiring author, one can see his sensitivity by what he endured as a child. It sparked a good discussion on racism, bigotry, etc.

[Charlie]

It was farftastic!