Dr. Seuss

History Maker Bios

by Laura Hamilton Waxman

True or False?
Dr. Seuss was a real doctor.

False!
Dr. Seuss was the fun name chosen by writer Theodor Geisel. As Dr. Seuss, Geisel wrote more than sixty books for children.

- Dr. Seuss began drawing and writing stories when he was a young boy.
- He gave his characters strange names such as the Grinch, the Obsk, the seersucker, and the Bippo-No-Bungus.
- More than 200 million copies of his books have been sold around the world.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Nancy Kotkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short children's biography of children's author Dr. Seuss. Text is interesting and relevant. Book is sprinkled with photos to provide further context. Includes a timeline of his life, bibliography, and index.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hamilton-Waxman, Laura; Butler, Tad; Dr. Seuss, Lerner Publications Company, 2010, biography, 2nd-5th, rate 4,lexile 540L

This book tells the story of Dr. Seuss from his birth to his death. The illustrations include really pictures from his hometown, illustrations he used to make for ads, and photos of him and his wife.

I rate this 4. Compared to the first book I read, Who was Dr. Seuss?, this book left out details that I felt were important to help understand his whole life, such events include him not getting a medal at a Boy Scout event which made his not like public speaking or how he lied about getting money for Oxford; although those were crucial to understanding his life, I just noticed this book wasn’t as detailed. What I do appreciate more about this book though, is that there are real pictures (instead of illustrations), of Seuss’s hometown, him working in his office, a book signing, the zoo, his colleges, places he worked, book covers, a stuff animal of Horton, his military picture, and other photos of Seuss. It helped to make his life more real to the reading, by seeing actually photos.

[Jessica Shepherd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book is awesome to read to get to know about Dr. Seuss, who I didn't know, his real name is Ted Geisel. This book is very informational and interesting. It gives exactly what you would need to know about him. It tells about all the children's books he wrote about his life, which is great.

[Luanne Hatcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a couple of biographies on Dr. Seuss, but the pictures in these books show the eighty plus year-old Ted or drawings of him as a boy. When I saw this book, it showed a younger Dr. Seuss. It has actual photographs of Ted, his boyhood home, schools, his first wife, Helen and their home in California, and his widow, Audrey. After reading this bio, I felt like I knew him better. I enjoyed reading about his wives. It would be a good read-aloud for third graders.

[Gideon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The person Dr. Seuss makes funny kids books.

[Daisy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bleh, a really boring biography redolent of the dreaded "report book."

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great synopsis of Dr. Seuss' life. Good example of how an artist's persistance garnered him a career in doing what he loved best.