I mean, it's Dr. Seuss. How can I not give it five stars?
I promise I didn't read this just to pad my book count for the year. The real reason was because someone in the Facebook reading group I'm in read it (and reads it annually, he said), and I had NEVER HEARD OF IT!!! I don't even know how that is possible, but there it is. So I found it at the library and checked it out.
I am very glad I read this. The premise of this book is that, no matter how things are going, no matter how sour or blue you feel, there is always someone "much more . . . oh, ever so much more . . . oh, muchly much-much more unlucky than you!" For example, there's this person who lives in Ga-Zair, and their bedroom is all the way at the top of the tower on the left and their bathroom is all the way at the top of the tower on the right. Then there is poor Herbie Hart, "who has taken his Throm-dim-bu-lator apart!" I mean, there are two pages of parts scattered everywhere. Poor Herbie is never going to get that thing back together!
There's poor Mr. Bix, who has to fix his Borfin every morning, because it goes "shlump" every single night! There's poor Mr. Potter who is a "T-crosser" and "I-dotter" at the "I-and-T factory."
Don't even get me started on the "Hawtch-Hawtcher Bee-Watcher" who wasn't doing a good enough job so they had to get a "Bee-Watcher-Watcher," who then had to be watched by another, and . . . well, "Today all the Hawtchers who live in Hawtch-Hawtch are watching on Watch-Watcher-Watchering-Watch, Watch-Watching the Watcher who's watching that bee."
Then there's poor Harry Haddow who can't make a shadow. Must be something wrong with his Gizz.
So whenever you're feeling unlucky, just think of all the others out there who are "much-much, oh, ever so much-much, so muchly much-much more unlucky than you!"
I recommend this book to everyone. Seriously. Just read it.