I learned to read in the 1950s. Back then I was not a good reader and required extra help from a tutor, just to get started. I am sure that some of my problems started with the choices others made in curriculum. Certainly, at the time the Dick and Jane books were the most popular among educators. Like most of my classmates, I found these books totally boring, but even they were better than the alternative, the McGuffey Readers. These 19th-century textbooks were archaic long before me, and I hated them even more.

About this time, a little late for me, because I had already begun to read, a new author arrived on the scene, Dr. Seuss. Its rhymes and graphics were both captivating. First challenged by his publisher to create a book for children, Dr. Seuss wrote The Cat in a Hat. Part of this challenge was a stipulation that all of the book’s vocabulary be chosen only from a list of educators approved words. Seuss soon became frustrated with this list and finally decided to choose the first two rhyming words on the list, cat and hat and the rest is history. The Cat in a Hat has a vocabulary of about 300 words. Trying to press the good doctor even further, his publisher asked him if he could write a book with a vocabulary of only 50 words. That is how we got Green Eggs and Ham.

When we went to go vote last month, we stopped to sit on a bench. There was a little free library nearby. There Anne found this book and many thanks to her for reading it aloud and for allowing me to film her doing it.