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Scrambled Eggs Super!
When it comes to scrambling, Peter T. Hooper isn’t content with just any old egg! He uses something extra special for his super-dee-dooper dishes! This delightful book forms part of the second stage in HarperCollins’ major Dr. Seuss rebrand programme. With the relaunch of 10 more titles in August 2003, such all-time favourites as How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? and Dr. Seuss’ Sleep Book boast bright new covers that incorporate much needed guidance on reading Blue Back Books are for parents to share with young children, Green Back Books are for budding readers to tackle on their own, and Yellow Back Books are for older, more fluent readers to enjoy. Scrambled Eggs Super! belongs to the Yellow Back Book range.
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1953
44 people are currently reading
1405 people want to read
About the author
Dr. Seuss
971 books18.3k followersAlso wrote as Theodore Seuss Geisel, see https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Theodor Seuss Geisel was born 2 March 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He graduated Dartmouth College in 1925, and proceeded on to Oxford University with the intent of acquiring a doctorate in literature. At Oxford he met Helen Palmer, who he wed in 1927. He returned from Europe in 1927, and began working for a magazine called Judge, the leading humor magazine in America at the time, submitting both cartoons and humorous articles for them. Additionally, he was submitting cartoons to Life, Vanity Fair and Liberty. In some of his works, he'd made reference to an insecticide called Flit. These references gained notice, and led to a contract to draw comic ads for Flit. This association lasted 17 years, gained him national exposure, and coined the catchphrase "Quick, Henry, the Flit!"
In 1936 on the way to a vacation in Europe, listening to the rhythm of the ship's engines, he came up with And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, which was then promptly rejected by the first 43 publishers he showed it to. Eventually in 1937 a friend published the book for him, and it went on to at least moderate success.
During World War II, Geisel joined the army and was sent to Hollywood. Captain Geisel would write for Frank Capra's Signal Corps Unit (for which he won the Legion of Merit) and do documentaries (he won Oscar's for Hitler Lives and Design for Death). He also created a cartoon called Gerald McBoing-Boing which also won him an Oscar.
In May of 1954, Life published a report concerning illiteracy among school children. The report said, among other things, that children were having trouble to read because their books were boring. This inspired Geisel's publisher, and prompted him to send Geisel a list of 400 words he felt were important, asked him to cut the list to 250 words (the publishers idea of how many words at one time a first grader could absorb), and write a book. Nine months later, Geisel, using 220 of the words given to him published The Cat in the Hat , which went on to instant success.
In 1960 Bennett Cerf bet Geisel $50 that he couldn't write an entire book using only fifty words. The result was Green Eggs and Ham . Cerf never paid the $50 from the bet.
Helen Palmer Geisel died in 1967. Theodor Geisel married Audrey Stone Diamond in 1968. Theodor Seuss Geisel died 24 September 1991.
Also worked under the pen name: Theo Le Sieg
Theodor Seuss Geisel was born 2 March 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He graduated Dartmouth College in 1925, and proceeded on to Oxford University with the intent of acquiring a doctorate in literature. At Oxford he met Helen Palmer, who he wed in 1927. He returned from Europe in 1927, and began working for a magazine called Judge, the leading humor magazine in America at the time, submitting both cartoons and humorous articles for them. Additionally, he was submitting cartoons to Life, Vanity Fair and Liberty. In some of his works, he'd made reference to an insecticide called Flit. These references gained notice, and led to a contract to draw comic ads for Flit. This association lasted 17 years, gained him national exposure, and coined the catchphrase "Quick, Henry, the Flit!"
In 1936 on the way to a vacation in Europe, listening to the rhythm of the ship's engines, he came up with And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, which was then promptly rejected by the first 43 publishers he showed it to. Eventually in 1937 a friend published the book for him, and it went on to at least moderate success.
During World War II, Geisel joined the army and was sent to Hollywood. Captain Geisel would write for Frank Capra's Signal Corps Unit (for which he won the Legion of Merit) and do documentaries (he won Oscar's for Hitler Lives and Design for Death). He also created a cartoon called Gerald McBoing-Boing which also won him an Oscar.
In May of 1954, Life published a report concerning illiteracy among school children. The report said, among other things, that children were having trouble to read because their books were boring. This inspired Geisel's publisher, and prompted him to send Geisel a list of 400 words he felt were important, asked him to cut the list to 250 words (the publishers idea of how many words at one time a first grader could absorb), and write a book. Nine months later, Geisel, using 220 of the words given to him published The Cat in the Hat , which went on to instant success.
In 1960 Bennett Cerf bet Geisel $50 that he couldn't write an entire book using only fifty words. The result was Green Eggs and Ham . Cerf never paid the $50 from the bet.
Helen Palmer Geisel died in 1967. Theodor Geisel married Audrey Stone Diamond in 1968. Theodor Seuss Geisel died 24 September 1991.
Also worked under the pen name: Theo Le Sieg
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March 3, 2021
"So unless you can catch'em before the eggs crash
You haven't got eggs. You've got Long-Legger Hash."
"Then I heard of some birds who lay eggs, if you please
That taste like the air in the holes in Swiss cheese!"
Peter T. Hooper knows what he wants and he knows how to get it and have lots of adventuresome fun in the process!
You haven't got eggs. You've got Long-Legger Hash."
"Then I heard of some birds who lay eggs, if you please
That taste like the air in the holes in Swiss cheese!"
Peter T. Hooper knows what he wants and he knows how to get it and have lots of adventuresome fun in the process!
November 2, 2016
But what about an egg?
This bird and that bird.
This way and that way. "
A humorous collection of imaginative animals that contribute to a super deluxe egg omelette.
The clever rhymes are married with equally vivid pictures.
March 4, 2021
A kid brags about having made the most amazing scrambled eggs ever, adventurously obtaining - on his own, or with the help of others - the eggs of progressively more fantastical and unlikely birds. There is an unstated implication, which is that Younger kids -- at least mine -- do not seem to pick up on this.
Seuss is very handy for the budding reader for whom you want to enforce sounding out words, instead of the popular "look at the first letter and guess" method.
On our shelves, in occasional bedtime rotation, is a copy in poor shape. Looks like we won't be able to upgrade, as this is one of the six Seusses which have been withdrawn from new publication, and Ebay is banning sales of older editions.
Seuss is very handy for the budding reader for whom you want to enforce sounding out words, instead of the popular "look at the first letter and guess" method.
On our shelves, in occasional bedtime rotation, is a copy in poor shape. Looks like we won't be able to upgrade, as this is one of the six Seusses which have been withdrawn from new publication, and Ebay is banning sales of older editions.
March 26, 2021
Speaking to his younger sister one day in this rhyming picture-book adventure, the imaginative Peter T. Hooper spins a tale of the most extraordinary scrambled eggs ever made - by him, of course! Hen eggs being entirely too mundane for him, this ambitious youngster heads out into the world to collect some very unusual and rare eggs, produced by some very inventive made-up creatures. From the Long-Legger Kwong, whose eggs need to be caught before they hit the ground, to the Grickily Gractus, who lays her eggs in a cactus, these birds produce eggs that are worth tracking down, just as Petter T. Hooper produces the much vaunted "Scrambled Eggs Super..."
Originally published in 1954, some four years after his If I Ran the Zoo , Scrambled Eggs Super! is Dr. Seuss' ninth picture-book, and feels like a variation on that earlier book, and on McElligot's Pool , published in 1947. All three titles are a marvelous catalogue of fantastic creatures, dreamt up by a young boy narrator who imagines the fish he might catch in McElligot's Pool , the animals he could imprison in If I Ran the Zoo , and the eggs he might collect in Scrambled Eggs Super! The artwork here is vintage Seuss fun, full of quirky animal characters, expressive human ones - the little girl's face in the final scene had me chuckling! - and created using the black line drawings and colorful accents of earlier titles. The wacky storyline, colorful artwork and rhyming text all make this an entertaining read-aloud selection, like so many of Dr. Seuss' famous titles.
I have vague memories of enjoying Scrambled Eggs Super! as a girl - some of the scenes really popped out at me, during this reread, and I smiled in recognition at some of the birds - but it wasn't one of my childhood favorites, when it comes to Dr. Seuss' work, and I hadn't thought of it in years. My current reread was prompted by the Seuss retrospective I have recently begun, in which I will be reading and reviewing all forty-four of his classic picture-books, in chronological publication order. This is a project that I began as an act of personal protest against the suppression of six of the author/artist's titles - this one, as well as And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , McElligot's Pool , If I Ran the Zoo , On Beyond Zebra! and The Cat's Quizzer - by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, an action with which I vehemently disagree.
This decision was purportedly taken by Dr. Seuss Enterprises in response to outdated and ostensibly offensive elements in these six books. Reading through Scrambled Eggs Super! I was able to identify two potentially problematic scenes that no doubt led to its inclusion amongst the titles to be suppressed. The first of these was the one involving the arctic Grice, a bird living near the North Pole, whose eggs are obtained by a boatload of men in furry-looking jumpsuits. These men, riding in their Katta-ma-Side (a boat made of the sea leopard's hide), are interpreted by most to be a caricature of the Inuit, whose depiction seems to be a recurring theme - see my review of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street and McElligot's Pool for my interpretation of the other appearances of the Inuit, thus far in my reading project - in this effort to challenge and disappear some of Seuss' work. The second potentially problematic scene involved the Mount Strookoo Cookoo, whose eggs were collected by Ali, a figure outfitted in traditional Turkish clothing, whose depiction might be interpreted by some as being Orientalist in nature.
As I mentioned in my review of If I Ran the Zoo , it's important to recall that Dr. Seuss' method of storytelling, whether textual or artistic, is heavily reliant upon caricature, and it is often satirical in nature. In thinking about these challenged titles, and considering the specific depictions being criticized, I have found it very helpful to distinguish between cases where the caricature of non-European and non-Euro-American peoples is of the same tone and kind as that of European and Euro-American peoples, and those cases where it is not. In my analysis, I concluded that And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street and McElligot's Pool contained depictions that might be considered racially or culturally insensitive, given the current zeitgeist, but that lacked the animus necessary to label them as racist, or truly objectionable. They were not, in other words, demeaning or hateful - simply satirical, in the way that other depictions in those books were satirical. Sadly, I did not arrive at the same conclusion, reading If I Ran the Zoo , where I found the controversial scenes were indeed of a demeaning and dehumanizing nature.
The two aforementioned scenes, here in Scrambled Eggs Super!, belong very much to the former category, and while I would never question another reader's right to object to them - it is not my place, after all, to tell others how to interpret what they read - I am amazed that they resulted in this book being pulled from publication. The scene with the Grice-hunters never identifies the people in question in anything but a fictional way (no mention of the word "Eskimo," which, by contrast, can be found in the text of McElligot's Pool ), and their visual depiction is not particularly pointed or demeaning. It's clear that in the narrator's mind, northern people are associated with northern birds, as they all live in the north, and that no particular commentary (positive or negative) is being offered on the humans in question. Not so with the Turkish Ali, who is described in the text as "brave Ali," for his actions in fighting off flocks of cuckoos, in order to complete his mission. While both of these depictions employ some stereotype - the "Inuit" figures in furry clothing, Ali in a turban - it is not at all clear to me that this stereotyping is any more pointed or hurtful than any other stereotyping that a caricaturist such as Seuss would use.
I've made the point several times now, during the course of this reading project, that I have no objection to other readers deciding that these books are indeed hurtful, and to their making the decision not to share them with the young people in the lives. My objection is to the idea, implicit in Dr. Seuss Enterprises' recent decision, that because some have found these books offensive, no one else should be allowed to easily access them. I have seen the specious argument floated about, both by members of our chattering classes and by private citizens on the internet, that this is not a "book banning," because it is the copyright holder who is making the decision to remove these books, rather than some governmental agency. I find this a curiously naive attitude, and suspect that it rests upon some rather disingenuous double standards. Imagine the following scenario: an author has written a best-selling picture-book featuring same-sex parents. Said author owns the rights to the book (unlikely, in today's publishing market, but let's pretend), and when he dies, those rights pass to a relative who, for religious reasons, believes same-sex marriage is wrong. Acting in accordance with her conscience, the relative decides to stop publication, sincerely convinced that the book in question will harm vulnerable children, by sending them the wrong messages. Would the readers and critics applauding this recent decision by Dr. Seuss Enterprises still be arguing that nothing censorious was going on, in the foregoing scenario, because the one taking action to suppress the book was the copyright holder? Or would they be vehemently protesting what they saw as the imposition of someone else's moral code onto their own reading choices?
I think everyone knows what the reaction would be, to the unlikely scenario posited above, and it certainly wouldn't involve the mental gymnastics we've seen commentators put themselves through recently, to show that this whole debacle wasn't censorship, because copyright holders have the legal authority to make these decisions. A few years ago, objecting to then Vice President Mike Pence's stance on LGBT rights, the talkshow host John Oliver dreamt up a satirical picture-book, A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo , in response to the publication of another picture-book, Marlon Bundo's Day in the Life of the Vice President , by the Vice President's daughter, Charlotte Pence. While I had some ethical issues with the whole thing, mostly surrounding the idea of attacking a public figure, not through his own work, but through his family, this still strikes me as a superior response to the existence of books with which one doesn't agree, compared to the strategy employed here. Publish more books! Offer an alternative (and there are MANY, in the world of picture-books) to the stories one finds objectionable. Don't just demand that the books available to the public conform to your own moral compass, as if there were no duty incumbent upon you, as a member of a free society, to persuade people, rather than to dictate to them.
People like to make up their own minds, in this and anything else, and they do not like to feel that others are curtailing their choices, particularly when it comes to the books and other media that they consume. For my own part, I found nothing here that would even remotely have warranted the step take by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, if I were of the opinion that such a step was ever justified. Scrambled Eggs Super! isn't a personal favorite, when it comes to Seuss' oeuvre, but is one I would still recommend, to picture-book readers looking for tales which celebrate a child's imaginative powers.
Originally published in 1954, some four years after his If I Ran the Zoo , Scrambled Eggs Super! is Dr. Seuss' ninth picture-book, and feels like a variation on that earlier book, and on McElligot's Pool , published in 1947. All three titles are a marvelous catalogue of fantastic creatures, dreamt up by a young boy narrator who imagines the fish he might catch in McElligot's Pool , the animals he could imprison in If I Ran the Zoo , and the eggs he might collect in Scrambled Eggs Super! The artwork here is vintage Seuss fun, full of quirky animal characters, expressive human ones - the little girl's face in the final scene had me chuckling! - and created using the black line drawings and colorful accents of earlier titles. The wacky storyline, colorful artwork and rhyming text all make this an entertaining read-aloud selection, like so many of Dr. Seuss' famous titles.
I have vague memories of enjoying Scrambled Eggs Super! as a girl - some of the scenes really popped out at me, during this reread, and I smiled in recognition at some of the birds - but it wasn't one of my childhood favorites, when it comes to Dr. Seuss' work, and I hadn't thought of it in years. My current reread was prompted by the Seuss retrospective I have recently begun, in which I will be reading and reviewing all forty-four of his classic picture-books, in chronological publication order. This is a project that I began as an act of personal protest against the suppression of six of the author/artist's titles - this one, as well as And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street , McElligot's Pool , If I Ran the Zoo , On Beyond Zebra! and The Cat's Quizzer - by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, an action with which I vehemently disagree.
This decision was purportedly taken by Dr. Seuss Enterprises in response to outdated and ostensibly offensive elements in these six books. Reading through Scrambled Eggs Super! I was able to identify two potentially problematic scenes that no doubt led to its inclusion amongst the titles to be suppressed. The first of these was the one involving the arctic Grice, a bird living near the North Pole, whose eggs are obtained by a boatload of men in furry-looking jumpsuits. These men, riding in their Katta-ma-Side (a boat made of the sea leopard's hide), are interpreted by most to be a caricature of the Inuit, whose depiction seems to be a recurring theme - see my review of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street and McElligot's Pool for my interpretation of the other appearances of the Inuit, thus far in my reading project - in this effort to challenge and disappear some of Seuss' work. The second potentially problematic scene involved the Mount Strookoo Cookoo, whose eggs were collected by Ali, a figure outfitted in traditional Turkish clothing, whose depiction might be interpreted by some as being Orientalist in nature.
As I mentioned in my review of If I Ran the Zoo , it's important to recall that Dr. Seuss' method of storytelling, whether textual or artistic, is heavily reliant upon caricature, and it is often satirical in nature. In thinking about these challenged titles, and considering the specific depictions being criticized, I have found it very helpful to distinguish between cases where the caricature of non-European and non-Euro-American peoples is of the same tone and kind as that of European and Euro-American peoples, and those cases where it is not. In my analysis, I concluded that And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street and McElligot's Pool contained depictions that might be considered racially or culturally insensitive, given the current zeitgeist, but that lacked the animus necessary to label them as racist, or truly objectionable. They were not, in other words, demeaning or hateful - simply satirical, in the way that other depictions in those books were satirical. Sadly, I did not arrive at the same conclusion, reading If I Ran the Zoo , where I found the controversial scenes were indeed of a demeaning and dehumanizing nature.
The two aforementioned scenes, here in Scrambled Eggs Super!, belong very much to the former category, and while I would never question another reader's right to object to them - it is not my place, after all, to tell others how to interpret what they read - I am amazed that they resulted in this book being pulled from publication. The scene with the Grice-hunters never identifies the people in question in anything but a fictional way (no mention of the word "Eskimo," which, by contrast, can be found in the text of McElligot's Pool ), and their visual depiction is not particularly pointed or demeaning. It's clear that in the narrator's mind, northern people are associated with northern birds, as they all live in the north, and that no particular commentary (positive or negative) is being offered on the humans in question. Not so with the Turkish Ali, who is described in the text as "brave Ali," for his actions in fighting off flocks of cuckoos, in order to complete his mission. While both of these depictions employ some stereotype - the "Inuit" figures in furry clothing, Ali in a turban - it is not at all clear to me that this stereotyping is any more pointed or hurtful than any other stereotyping that a caricaturist such as Seuss would use.
I've made the point several times now, during the course of this reading project, that I have no objection to other readers deciding that these books are indeed hurtful, and to their making the decision not to share them with the young people in the lives. My objection is to the idea, implicit in Dr. Seuss Enterprises' recent decision, that because some have found these books offensive, no one else should be allowed to easily access them. I have seen the specious argument floated about, both by members of our chattering classes and by private citizens on the internet, that this is not a "book banning," because it is the copyright holder who is making the decision to remove these books, rather than some governmental agency. I find this a curiously naive attitude, and suspect that it rests upon some rather disingenuous double standards. Imagine the following scenario: an author has written a best-selling picture-book featuring same-sex parents. Said author owns the rights to the book (unlikely, in today's publishing market, but let's pretend), and when he dies, those rights pass to a relative who, for religious reasons, believes same-sex marriage is wrong. Acting in accordance with her conscience, the relative decides to stop publication, sincerely convinced that the book in question will harm vulnerable children, by sending them the wrong messages. Would the readers and critics applauding this recent decision by Dr. Seuss Enterprises still be arguing that nothing censorious was going on, in the foregoing scenario, because the one taking action to suppress the book was the copyright holder? Or would they be vehemently protesting what they saw as the imposition of someone else's moral code onto their own reading choices?
I think everyone knows what the reaction would be, to the unlikely scenario posited above, and it certainly wouldn't involve the mental gymnastics we've seen commentators put themselves through recently, to show that this whole debacle wasn't censorship, because copyright holders have the legal authority to make these decisions. A few years ago, objecting to then Vice President Mike Pence's stance on LGBT rights, the talkshow host John Oliver dreamt up a satirical picture-book, A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo , in response to the publication of another picture-book, Marlon Bundo's Day in the Life of the Vice President , by the Vice President's daughter, Charlotte Pence. While I had some ethical issues with the whole thing, mostly surrounding the idea of attacking a public figure, not through his own work, but through his family, this still strikes me as a superior response to the existence of books with which one doesn't agree, compared to the strategy employed here. Publish more books! Offer an alternative (and there are MANY, in the world of picture-books) to the stories one finds objectionable. Don't just demand that the books available to the public conform to your own moral compass, as if there were no duty incumbent upon you, as a member of a free society, to persuade people, rather than to dictate to them.
People like to make up their own minds, in this and anything else, and they do not like to feel that others are curtailing their choices, particularly when it comes to the books and other media that they consume. For my own part, I found nothing here that would even remotely have warranted the step take by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, if I were of the opinion that such a step was ever justified. Scrambled Eggs Super! isn't a personal favorite, when it comes to Seuss' oeuvre, but is one I would still recommend, to picture-book readers looking for tales which celebrate a child's imaginative powers.
March 6, 2021
Theodore Geisel has long been known to have drawn racist cartoons during WWII, performed in a minstrel show in college. I saw an exhibit of his work ten years ago that lauded his work in dozens of books but admitted that early on in his career as Dr. Seuss, cartoonist of silly and thoughtful children’s picturebooks, he created offensive cartoons. Many humans on the planet have learned to read thanks to the Seuss books, including me. I think I have nineteen books in this house, and a couple omnibus collections of his work as well. But like Shel Silverstein, who wrote cartoons for Playboy even as he wrote beloved books for children, Geisel also penned a racy book or two. And some with racist images. Do we throw out the baby with the bathwater? Do we cancel all the fun and useful books Seuss wrote because some contain offenses?
Seuss is a satirist. He historically has been an equal opportunity comedian, making fun of everyone, doing what comics do, caricaturing for laughs. And he eventually became an apologist for racial (and other) tolerance, in book after book.
Decide for yourself on this one book, of course, but a panel of “experts” working with the Seuss Foundation, following a series of academic panels on the subject of his (sometimes?) racist legacy, decided to no longer continuing publication of six of his books (in academia, we call these “texts”!) because of what they concurred were racist imagery:
"Scrambled Eggs Super! has been discontinued because of REPORTED racist and insensitive imagery."
At the risk of being pilloried for piling on the racism by sharing the actual images, Scrambled Eggs Super!--which, don’t forget, is about the making of an unusually good omelet (which on this Saturday morning I suddenly realize I could use!) from a diy recipe contributed to by various weird creature sources--has a page that shows some Inuit/indigenous hunters that seem to have caused offense. But I finally decided to share the whole book below. T o let you find the images and decide for yourself.
It’s not for me, a white non-indigenous guy of a certain age, to judge whether these images “should” be offensive to indigenous communities or whether this might be a case of academic overreaction. I assume that indigenous art critics and the northern community in particular have been consulted in the process and not just PhD candidates.
I thought the book was fun, though I might take issue with the stealing of eggs from various rare birds. This may not offend you, but as an environmentalist I noticed it. And the stealing (seen as "collecting"). I guess that puts me in the snowflake camp for even mentioning it, eh? But it's not as much a positive human values book as some later works from Seuss surely are, though it's not so serious to me that I would keep kids from reading it. The rare birds featured actually exist, so in that sense it is an environment-forward book! Yay!
Here’s the book, read aloud for you on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLPrA...
Here’s a couple of quick articles about the book controversy, and banning:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/02/us/dr-...
https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2021/03/02...
Seuss is a satirist. He historically has been an equal opportunity comedian, making fun of everyone, doing what comics do, caricaturing for laughs. And he eventually became an apologist for racial (and other) tolerance, in book after book.
Decide for yourself on this one book, of course, but a panel of “experts” working with the Seuss Foundation, following a series of academic panels on the subject of his (sometimes?) racist legacy, decided to no longer continuing publication of six of his books (in academia, we call these “texts”!) because of what they concurred were racist imagery:
"Scrambled Eggs Super! has been discontinued because of REPORTED racist and insensitive imagery."
At the risk of being pilloried for piling on the racism by sharing the actual images, Scrambled Eggs Super!--which, don’t forget, is about the making of an unusually good omelet (which on this Saturday morning I suddenly realize I could use!) from a diy recipe contributed to by various weird creature sources--has a page that shows some Inuit/indigenous hunters that seem to have caused offense. But I finally decided to share the whole book below. T o let you find the images and decide for yourself.
It’s not for me, a white non-indigenous guy of a certain age, to judge whether these images “should” be offensive to indigenous communities or whether this might be a case of academic overreaction. I assume that indigenous art critics and the northern community in particular have been consulted in the process and not just PhD candidates.
I thought the book was fun, though I might take issue with the stealing of eggs from various rare birds. This may not offend you, but as an environmentalist I noticed it. And the stealing (seen as "collecting"). I guess that puts me in the snowflake camp for even mentioning it, eh? But it's not as much a positive human values book as some later works from Seuss surely are, though it's not so serious to me that I would keep kids from reading it. The rare birds featured actually exist, so in that sense it is an environment-forward book! Yay!
Here’s the book, read aloud for you on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLPrA...
Here’s a couple of quick articles about the book controversy, and banning:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/02/us/dr-...
https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2021/03/02...
July 16, 2019
Loved this book - so many great memories.
December 20, 2014
Well I wanted to like it, but that's not going to happen. Very long winded book that keeps making up hard to say bird names. I didn't see any positive messages come across like in other Seuss works. Idk it was all take and steal, destroy and devour. Usually the lesson we want our children to learn is to respect nature, but that is the opposite of what comes across here. I think any innocent child would enjoy the story if they didn't dig any deeper.
March 2, 2016
Read this book to a class of first graders.
I love sharing Dr. Seuss books with children, especially the less-heard of books like "Scrambled Eggs Super!" The children loved the pictures and stories of how Peter T. Hooper got all of the different eggs from all of the different birds so that he could make scrambled eggs. As usual, the rhymes and made-up names of birds were a hit with the kids. The illustrations were also wonderful and funny. A Dr. Seuss book, well-read, can still captivate 23 first graders!
I love sharing Dr. Seuss books with children, especially the less-heard of books like "Scrambled Eggs Super!" The children loved the pictures and stories of how Peter T. Hooper got all of the different eggs from all of the different birds so that he could make scrambled eggs. As usual, the rhymes and made-up names of birds were a hit with the kids. The illustrations were also wonderful and funny. A Dr. Seuss book, well-read, can still captivate 23 first graders!
April 11, 2024
Peter T. Hooper (of The Cat in the Hat fame) addresses his sister Liz. "It's sort of a shame that scrambled eggs always taste always the same."
His recipe is more challenging than the Joy of Cooking's version. Hen eggs just won't cut it. You need hundreds of eggs from different kinds of birds (all that you've never heard of), 99 pans, 55 cans of beans, 2/3 cup of sugar, a small pinch of pepper, a pound of horseradish, some nuts, some ginger, nine prunes, three figs, 22 sprigs of parsley, 6 cinnamon sticks, and one clove.
And it's not just any different kinds of eggs. You need eggs from the Ruffle-Necked Sala-ma-goox, Kweet, Tizzle-Topped Grouse, Kwigger, South-West-Facing Crane, Grickily Gructus, Zumm, Bombastic Aghast, and many others. In fact, you have to go to so many places that you need a lot of helpers.
When you're done, you've got Scrambled Eggs Super-dee-Dooper-dee-Booper Special de luxe a-la-Peter T. Hooper. And that's what they taste like, too!
Reading this book reminded me of all the ways that children like to brag. I remember going to a camp picnic, and seeing that the can of pork and beans I had brought looked better with the top opened than the others. I began waxing eloquently about how carefully I had chosen my can of beans. Then, another boy noted that the only reason my beans looked better was because he had stirred them up with a spoon to bring the beans to the top of the can! I became much more humble about my grocery shopping skills after that experience. Peter T. Hooper hasn't been brought to ground yet.
A fun thing to use this book for is to think with your youngster about how favourite dishes could be made even better. Then, you can go on to consider how to add variety to other things that you do. This imagining will expand your child's intellect, and help both of you to lead more purposeful, interesting lives!
Be super!
His recipe is more challenging than the Joy of Cooking's version. Hen eggs just won't cut it. You need hundreds of eggs from different kinds of birds (all that you've never heard of), 99 pans, 55 cans of beans, 2/3 cup of sugar, a small pinch of pepper, a pound of horseradish, some nuts, some ginger, nine prunes, three figs, 22 sprigs of parsley, 6 cinnamon sticks, and one clove.
And it's not just any different kinds of eggs. You need eggs from the Ruffle-Necked Sala-ma-goox, Kweet, Tizzle-Topped Grouse, Kwigger, South-West-Facing Crane, Grickily Gructus, Zumm, Bombastic Aghast, and many others. In fact, you have to go to so many places that you need a lot of helpers.
When you're done, you've got Scrambled Eggs Super-dee-Dooper-dee-Booper Special de luxe a-la-Peter T. Hooper. And that's what they taste like, too!
Reading this book reminded me of all the ways that children like to brag. I remember going to a camp picnic, and seeing that the can of pork and beans I had brought looked better with the top opened than the others. I began waxing eloquently about how carefully I had chosen my can of beans. Then, another boy noted that the only reason my beans looked better was because he had stirred them up with a spoon to bring the beans to the top of the can! I became much more humble about my grocery shopping skills after that experience. Peter T. Hooper hasn't been brought to ground yet.
A fun thing to use this book for is to think with your youngster about how favourite dishes could be made even better. Then, you can go on to consider how to add variety to other things that you do. This imagining will expand your child's intellect, and help both of you to lead more purposeful, interesting lives!
Be super!
January 25, 2016
I think this is one of the lesser known books by Dr. Seuss, I've never heard of it and Hollywood couldn't have either cos they ain't made it into a movie yet.
In this book Dr. Seuss using his usual rhyming skills to promote the stealing of eggs from rare birds so that you can make the best scrambled eggs ever. I do have concerns that a lot of these birds don't exist, but I got a result for each one on Google so well done to Dr. Seuss for making these incredible birds rhyme. Top stuff.
In this book Dr. Seuss using his usual rhyming skills to promote the stealing of eggs from rare birds so that you can make the best scrambled eggs ever. I do have concerns that a lot of these birds don't exist, but I got a result for each one on Google so well done to Dr. Seuss for making these incredible birds rhyme. Top stuff.
March 6, 2021
Beautiful birds galore in this tale about a boy telling about what many interesting eggs to find for a special dish. A (100%/Outstanding)
March 23, 2021
2.5 Stars
I picked up this one to see what the reason was for the publishers to stop publishing it. I didn't see any issue with it at all. I, however, wouldn't read this to a child. It's wordy and got kind of boring after about the third page of him getting eggs.
I picked up this one to see what the reason was for the publishers to stop publishing it. I didn't see any issue with it at all. I, however, wouldn't read this to a child. It's wordy and got kind of boring after about the third page of him getting eggs.
February 4, 2015
How about you don't be an asshole, and take all those animals' eggs?
March 20, 2021
Recently because of some media spotlight on Dr. Seuss and his works. I decided to reread the 6 books in question and two others. But alas only had 5 of the 6 on hand. This is the first of the reviews.
Dr. Seuss is famous for his many children’s books. Books that spark the imagination. Surprise, and amaze. There is a large collection of old animated shorts based on them. And these has been several movies both animated and life action. He also wrote two books that though written and illustrated in a similar style and format are considered adult books they are The Seven Lady Godivas and The Butter Battle Book. Butter Battle is a commentary on war and is often found in the children’s sections in bookstores and libraries. Godivas I believe is long out of print, I believe the last printing was in 1988. And I am only aware of it because it is the favorite book of a friend.
I do not know a child who has not engaged with these books on some level. My youngest and my wife have a few of them memorized. And recite them to each other before bed, as much as read. My children loved the old, animated shorts, and like most of the movies. I was less fond of the live action movies but appreciate most of the animated ones. But back to this book.
This is a story, about a boy telling a tale to show off to his younger sister. Weather he expects her to believe it or not is unknown. But the tale gets larger and larger. He is suppose to be making scrambled eggs that do not taste like normal scrambled eggs, and is on a quest from eggs from all over the world and the imaginative world of Seuss.
A hilarious read, a brother showing off to his younger sister!
Read the review on my blog Book Reviews and More and reviews of other books by Dr. Seuss.
Dr. Seuss is famous for his many children’s books. Books that spark the imagination. Surprise, and amaze. There is a large collection of old animated shorts based on them. And these has been several movies both animated and life action. He also wrote two books that though written and illustrated in a similar style and format are considered adult books they are The Seven Lady Godivas and The Butter Battle Book. Butter Battle is a commentary on war and is often found in the children’s sections in bookstores and libraries. Godivas I believe is long out of print, I believe the last printing was in 1988. And I am only aware of it because it is the favorite book of a friend.
I do not know a child who has not engaged with these books on some level. My youngest and my wife have a few of them memorized. And recite them to each other before bed, as much as read. My children loved the old, animated shorts, and like most of the movies. I was less fond of the live action movies but appreciate most of the animated ones. But back to this book.
This is a story, about a boy telling a tale to show off to his younger sister. Weather he expects her to believe it or not is unknown. But the tale gets larger and larger. He is suppose to be making scrambled eggs that do not taste like normal scrambled eggs, and is on a quest from eggs from all over the world and the imaginative world of Seuss.
A hilarious read, a brother showing off to his younger sister!
Read the review on my blog Book Reviews and More and reviews of other books by Dr. Seuss.
August 20, 2020
Great rhyming, loved it!
September 12, 2020
تخیل ظریفی داره.کاش وقتی بچه بودم و عین مرغابی همیشه توی حمام بودم جای خوندن حسن کچل که نفرت عجیبی از حمام داشت برام همچین چیزهایی میخوندند.
April 10, 2021
Last month, the decision was made to stop publishing six Dr. Seuss books due to racist imagery. The six books are: 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. I’ve read several Dr. Seuss books over the years but I wasn’t familiar with the six books in question, so I decided to read them, while I still had a chance, and to see what all the fuss was about.
The second book I read was Scrambled Eggs Super!, a story about a young boy stealing eggs from all sort of birds in order to make scrambled eggs. The controversy is over images of men dressed in Inuit clothing who live at the North Pole and a man named Ali wearing a turban. OK, yeah, the first one is racist, the second one… meh. Honestly, can’t they just change the images/wording, or omit the offensive passages instead of outright stopping publication of this book?
Regardless, I didn’t care much for the overall storyline of this book — it was pretty cruel to steal the eggs of all these birds, and the boy was greedy — he didn’t need that many eggs!
The second book I read was Scrambled Eggs Super!, a story about a young boy stealing eggs from all sort of birds in order to make scrambled eggs. The controversy is over images of men dressed in Inuit clothing who live at the North Pole and a man named Ali wearing a turban. OK, yeah, the first one is racist, the second one… meh. Honestly, can’t they just change the images/wording, or omit the offensive passages instead of outright stopping publication of this book?
Regardless, I didn’t care much for the overall storyline of this book — it was pretty cruel to steal the eggs of all these birds, and the boy was greedy — he didn’t need that many eggs!
September 8, 2018
Classic Seuss, but not his best nor most memorable. Wacky creatures with even wackier names? Check. I picked this up specifically because I did not remember having read it as a child. As it happens, I hadn't missed out on very much. There are much better Seuss books to choose from.
July 31, 2012
After this I was an official egg slut.
January 15, 2015
Why did he have to steal all those eggs? Poor birds and somethinglikebirds!
Was he going to cook for 350 people? -_-
Was he going to cook for 350 people? -_-
April 7, 2017
I love eggs and I loved this.
August 1, 2025
As someone who doesn’t actually like scrambled eggs, I can not deny the fact that his scrambled eggs may change my mind. Easily one of my favorite Dr Seuss books.
Read
February 9, 2024Random #225,084
It's no Fox in Socks.
Basically a kid genocides a bunch of birds to make the worst scrambled eggs you've ever had.
It's no Fox in Socks.
Basically a kid genocides a bunch of birds to make the worst scrambled eggs you've ever had.
August 9, 2020
This was okay I guess, but it doesn’t really stand out for me over the other Dr. Seuss books that I’ve read. But then maybe I’m biased against scrambled eggs because I’m vegan and would prefer to eat scrambled tofu. It’s good for kids though.
March 20, 2021
Reading the books that Dr. Seuss enterprises has decided to not print because they are now woke. Read it.
March 3, 2021
Taking a little time on Read Across America Day to honor the one and only Dr. Seuss. Here we meet young Peter and his sister Liz. Peter is eager to show off his mad cooking skills (eggs are his specialty) and goes all over the globe (and his imagination) to find just the right combination.
April 20, 2016
This book is another creative and inventive book into the mind of Dr. Seuss. I honestly tell when he puts his heart into his work because the rhymes are spot on, the illustrations are beautiful and the nonsense of it all is intriguing and helps me lost myself into the world of Dr. Seuss.
We are introduced to a boy name Peter T. Hooper (Hooper as in Hula Hoop with an -er) who is bragging to his sister, Liz about the one meal he made one time when his mother was out. He wanted to make scramble eggs but he wanted to make a special type of scramble eggs. So he starts searching for a particular bird and then the madness begins. He simply can't have one or two special eggs so he travels around the world both near and far with special friends to help him find rare eggs. He goes on a rampage with these birds and I got so giddy from reading it. By the end of it he makes the scramble eggs and supposedly they are best scramble eggs he's ever made and eaten.
I really enjoyed this book because of the pure imagination of different birds. I love how Dr. Seuss created different birds, giving them unique and peculiar names and at the same time he made them the lines rhyme and it was easy to read and understand. I am shocked that this book hasn't gotten much attention as his other famous works because I believe any child would love this book especially it dealing with birds and food.
We are introduced to a boy name Peter T. Hooper (Hooper as in Hula Hoop with an -er) who is bragging to his sister, Liz about the one meal he made one time when his mother was out. He wanted to make scramble eggs but he wanted to make a special type of scramble eggs. So he starts searching for a particular bird and then the madness begins. He simply can't have one or two special eggs so he travels around the world both near and far with special friends to help him find rare eggs. He goes on a rampage with these birds and I got so giddy from reading it. By the end of it he makes the scramble eggs and supposedly they are best scramble eggs he's ever made and eaten.
I really enjoyed this book because of the pure imagination of different birds. I love how Dr. Seuss created different birds, giving them unique and peculiar names and at the same time he made them the lines rhyme and it was easy to read and understand. I am shocked that this book hasn't gotten much attention as his other famous works because I believe any child would love this book especially it dealing with birds and food.
April 29, 2025
I am reading and rereading Dr Suess' books written for family enjoyment.
Story.How well the monologue is written and well the art depicts the pomposity if the boy who would be chef if a dish called scrambled eggs super.
ArtThe depiction of the boy telling his tall tale and the girl sitting up high over the boy shows the boy is boasting to an audience who just may have soon realized the boy is telling a whooper.
Story.How well the monologue is written and well the art depicts the pomposity if the boy who would be chef if a dish called scrambled eggs super.
ArtThe depiction of the boy telling his tall tale and the girl sitting up high over the boy shows the boy is boasting to an audience who just may have soon realized the boy is telling a whooper.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 2, 2018
My Review: This is one of the few Dr. Seuss books I never read as a child, so it was exciting to be able to read this with Munchkin. Munchkin is big on cooking and especially likes breakfast so that was an added element of interest. It was a fun book to read, full of rhymes, classic made up names, and lots of tongue twisters to trip me up and give Munchkin a good laugh. It was a bit long and did take a couple of sittings to read but all in all it was an entertaining read, but not our favorite Dr. Seuss.
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