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Nutty Numbers

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Dr. Seuss is famous the world over for helping children learn to read. But now even pre-readers can join in the fun and benefit from his wacky rhymes and crazy pictures.

10 pages, Board book

First published November 3, 2003

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197 people want to read

About the author

Dr. Seuss

967 books18.3k followers
Also 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

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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
Profile Image for Jason.
1,320 reviews139 followers
February 19, 2016
Man! IT's tough to build up some enthusiasm for this book, another lift the flap book and this one is pretty dull. The only thing going for it is the illustrations, the wonderful Dr Seuss drawing still held my interest.
Profile Image for Carmen .
376 reviews
December 8, 2014
I didn't like this one much. Not much variety in each pages and only one example for each number. I expected more from Dr. Seuss.
Profile Image for Kevin Hull.
533 reviews11 followers
February 6, 2015
Pretty devoid of creativity. Makes you wonder if he even wrote it considering it was published long after his death.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews

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