Green Eggs and Ham

( 111 )

Overview

Back in 1957, Theodor Geisel responded to an article in Life magazine that lamented the use of boring reading primers in schools. Using the pseudonym of "Dr. Seuss" (Seuss was Geisel's middle name) and only 223 words, Geisel created a replacement for those dull primers: The Cat in the Hat. The instant success of the book prompted Geisel and his wife to found Beginner Books, and Geisel wrote 44 books in this series. These affordable hardcover books combine large print, easy vocabulary, and large, bright ...

See more details below
Hardcover
$7.59
BN.com price
(Save 15%)$8.99 List Price
Pick Up In Store

Pick Up In Store

Reserve and pick up in 60 minutes at your local store

Other sellers (Hardcover)
  • All (545) from $1.99   
  • New (39) from $4.19   
  • Used (506) from $1.99   
Note: Kids' Club Eligible. See More Details.
Sending request ...

More About This Book

Overview

Back in 1957, Theodor Geisel responded to an article in Life magazine that lamented the use of boring reading primers in schools. Using the pseudonym of "Dr. Seuss" (Seuss was Geisel's middle name) and only 223 words, Geisel created a replacement for those dull primers: The Cat in the Hat. The instant success of the book prompted Geisel and his wife to found Beginner Books, and Geisel wrote 44 books in this series. These affordable hardcover books combine large print, easy vocabulary, and large, bright illustrations in stories kids will want to read again and again. Grades 1 - Grades 2.

Read More Show Less
  • Green Eggs and Ham
    Green Eggs and Ham  

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher
"Limited vocabulary but unlimited exuberance of illustration."--School Library Journal.  
Read More Show Less

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780394800165
  • Publisher: Random House Children's Books
  • Publication date: 8/28/1960
  • Series: Beginner Books(R) Series
  • Edition number: 50
  • Pages: 72
  • Sales rank: 939
  • Age range: 3 - 5 Years
  • Lexile: 30L (what's this?)
  • Product dimensions: 6.49 (w) x 9.43 (h) x 0.41 (d)

Meet the Author

Dr. Seuss was born Theodor Geisel in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 2, 1904. After attending Dartmouth College and Oxford University, he began a career in advertising. His advertising cartoons, featuring Quick, Henry, the Flit!, appeared in several leading American magazines. Dr. Seuss's first children's book, And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, hit the market in 1937, and the world of children's literature was changed forever! In 1957, Seuss's The Cat in the Hat became the prototype for one of Random House's best- selling series, Beginner Books. This popular series combined engaging stories with outrageous illustrations and playful sounds to teach basic reading skills. Brilliant, playful, and always respectful of children, Dr. Seuss charmed his way into the consciousness of four generations of youngsters and parents. In the process, he helped kids learn to read.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 and three Academy Awards, Seuss was the author and illustrator of 44 children's books, some of which have been made into audiocassettes, animated television specials, and videos for children of all ages. Even after his death in 1991, Dr. Seuss continues to be the best-selling author of children's books in the world.

Biography

Now that generations of readers have been reared on The Cat in the Hat and Fox in Socks, it's easy to forget how colorless most children's books were before Dr. Seuss reinvented the genre. When the editorial cartoonist Theodor Seuss Geisel wrote And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street in 1936, the book was turned down by 27 publishers, many of whom said it was "too different." Geisel was about to burn his manuscript when it was rescued and published, under the pen name Dr. Seuss, by a college classmate.

Over the next two decades, Geisel concocted such delightfully loopy tales as The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins and Horton Hears a Who. Most of his books earned excellent reviews, and three received Caldecott Honor Awards. But it was the 1957 publication of The Cat in the Hat that catapulted Geisel to celebrity.

Rudolf Flesch's book Why Johnny Can't Read, along with a related Life magazine article, had recently charged that children's primers were too pallid and bland to inspire an interest in reading. The Cat in the Hat, written with 220 words from a first-grade vocabulary list, "worked like a karate chop on the weary little world of Dick, Jane and Spot," as Ellen Goodman wrote in The Detroit Free Press. With its vivid illustrations, rhyming text and topsy-turvy plot, Geisel's book for beginning readers was anything but bland. It sold nearly a million copies within three years.

Geisel was named president of Beginner Books, a new venture of Random House, where he worked with writers and artists like P.D. Eastman, Michael Frith, Al Perkins, and Roy McKie, some of whom collaborated with him on book projects. For books he wrote but didn't illustrate, Geisel used the pen name Theo LeSieg (LeSieg is Geisel spelled backwards).

As Dr. Seuss, he continued to write bestsellers. Some, like Green Eggs and Ham and the tongue-twisting Fox in Socks, were aimed at beginning readers. Others could be read by older children or read aloud by parents, who were often as captivated as their kids by Geisel's wit and imagination. Geisel's visual style appealed to television and film directors, too: The animator Chuck Jones, who had worked with Geisel on a series of Army training films, brought How the Grinch Stole Christmas! to life as a hugely popular animated TV special in 1966. A live-action movie starring Jim Carrey as the Grinch was released in 2000.

Many Dr. Seuss stories have serious undertones: The Butter Battle Book, for example, parodies the nuclear arms race. But whether he was teaching vocabulary words or values, Geisel never wrote plodding lesson books. All his stories are animated by a lively sense of visual and verbal play. At the time of his death in 1991, his books had sold more than 200 million copies. Bennett Cerf, Geisel's publisher, liked to say that of all the distinguished authors he had worked with, only one was a genius: Dr. Seuss.

Good To Know

The Cat in the Hat was written at the urging of editor William Spaulding, who insisted that a book for first-graders should have no more than 225 words. Later, Bennett Cerf bet Geisel $50 that he couldn't write a book with just 50 words. Geisel won the bet with Green Eggs and Ham, though to his recollection, Cerf never paid him the $50.

Geisel faced another challenge in 1974, when his friend Art Buchwald dared him to write a political book. Geisel picked up a copy of Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now! and a pen, crossed out each mention of the name "Marvin K. Mooney," and replaced it with "Richard M. Nixon." Buchwald reprinted the results in his syndicated column. Nine days later, President Nixon announced his resignation.

The American Heritage Dictionary says the word "nerd" first appeared in print in the Dr. Seuss book If I Ran the Zoo: "And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo / And bring back an It-Kutch a Preep and a Proo / A Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!" The word "grinch," after the title character in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, is defined in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary as a killjoy or spoilsport.

Read More Show Less
    1. Also Known As:
      Theodor Seuss Geisel (full name); also: Theo LeSieg, Rosetta Stone
    1. Date of Birth:
      March 2, 1904
    2. Place of Birth:
      Springfield, Massachusetts
    1. Date of Death:
      September 4, 1991
    2. Place of Death:
      La Jolla, California

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
( 111 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(92)

4 Star

(10)

3 Star

(5)

2 Star

(2)

1 Star

(2)

Your Rating:

Review Guidelines
Add Recommendations
Your Name: Create a Pen Name or

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Our reader reviews allow you to share your comments on titles you liked, or didn't, with others. By submitting an online review, you are representing to Barnes & Noble.com that all information contained in your review is original and accurate in all respects, and that the submission of such content by you and the posting of such content by Barnes & Noble.com does not and will not violate the rights of any third party. Please follow the rules below to help ensure that your review can be posted.

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

We highly value and respect everyone's opinion concerning the titles we offer. However, we cannot allow persons under the age of 13 to have accounts at BN.com or to post customer reviews. Please see our Terms of Use for more details.

What to exclude from your review:

Please do not write about reviews, commentary, or information posted on the product page. If you see any errors in the information on the product page, please send us an email.

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

  • - HTML tags, profanity, obscenities, vulgarities, or comments that defame anyone
  • - Time-sensitive information such as tour dates, signings, lectures, etc.
  • - Single-word reviews. Other people will read your review to discover why you liked or didn't like the title. Be descriptive.
  • - Comments focusing on the author or that may ruin the ending for others
  • - Phone numbers, addresses, URLs
  • - Pricing and availability information or alternative ordering information
  • - Advertisements or commercial solicitation

Reminder:

  • - By submitting a review, you grant to Barnes & Noble.com and its sublicensees the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use the review in accordance with the Barnes & Noble.com Terms of Use.
  • - Barnes & Noble.com reserves the right not to post any review -- particularly those that do not follow the terms and conditions of these Rules. Barnes & Noble.com also reserves the right to remove any review at any time without notice.
  • - See Terms of Use for other conditions and disclaimers.
Search for Products You'd Like to Recommend

Recommend other products that relate to your review. Just search for them below and share!

Create a Pen Name

Your Pen Name is your unique identity on BN.com. It will appear on the reviews you write and other website activities. Your Pen Name cannot be edited, changed or deleted once submitted.

 
Your Pen Name can be any combination of alphanumeric characters (plus - and _), and must be at least two characters long.

Continue Anonymously
See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 111 Customer Reviews

  • Posted September 26, 2011

    great book for children

    I loved this book as a child, my kids loved it when they were small and my grandsons are smitten with it - no childs book collection is complete without "Green Eggs and Ham"

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted August 17, 2011

    this book was great!!!!! awesome!!!!

    the book is kinda wierd becuase he dosen't like the green eggs and ham at the begging but he didn't try it so how could he not like it and when he trys it he ends up liking it so try defferint thing try somthing new.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted February 1, 2010

    Book reviews: Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss

    "Green Eggs and Ham" is an entertaining book that will appeal to children and adults as well. Throughout the book, the main character "Sam I Am" tries tirelessly to persuade his friend to eat an odd dish of green eggs and ham.
    Preschool children will enjoy the rhythmic and repetitive flow of the words in the story. This format helps new readers learn to recognize new words and allows them to read along with adults. Throughout the story, "Sam I Am" repeatedly asks "do you like green eggs and ham?" To further entice his friend to eat this bizarre but delicious concoction, he asks his friend questions that rhyme; "Do you like them in a box? Do you like them with a fox?"
    Beyond the obvious educational benefit of helping young children learn to read, this book teaches youngsters a lesson in life; that trying something new can be a good thing. Like "Sam I Am's" friend, children are often opposed to trying something that is unfamiliar to them. Then one day they try it, and to their surprise, they like it. The characters in this book along with the favorable outcome, encourages kids to try new things.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted February 26, 2013

    I like Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss This book is about Sam I

    I like Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss This book is about Sam I Am. He keeps asking "do you like green eggs and ham?" My favorite part is when he says, " that Sam I Am." My friend has to buy green eggs and ham because it is funny. by VC (first grade)

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted January 16, 2013

    This was one of my favorite books as a kid, and now I've passed

    This was one of my favorite books as a kid, and now I've passed on the love of green eggs and Dr Seuss to my son. It also is great to use as persuasion when your child won't try something new :)

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted September 22, 2012

    how can you...

    HOW CAN YOU RATE OR REVIW ANY DR. SUESS BOOK. WHETHER ITS GOOD OR BAD YOU GOT TO START A DR. SUESS COLLECTION THEY'RE A CLASSIC. I'M trying to start a collection of dr. suess books for my son. HE's opening up, he just doesn't realize the significance of it yet. he will eventually, has too its every body's childhood memory cant break the cycle. <3 green eggs and ham is a must have. every child is different just buy it and see.

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted April 26, 2012

    It's awesome!

    It's awesome!

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted March 4, 2012

    I love this book and I love Dr.Seuss! The Rhymes are really goo

    I love this book and I love Dr.Seuss! The Rhymes are really good! You cant out grow Dr.Seuss. Its perfect for any ages. You have to get this book!

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted January 26, 2012

    more from this reviewer

    Review

    Dr. Seuss presents another perfectly constructed tale in language--this one about understanding differences.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted January 3, 2012

    Great book.

    One of my favorite books when I was a kid. Has excellent rhymes and nice illustrations.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted August 29, 2011

    Great books for students and teachers!

    The book is about different ways and places to eat Green Eggs and Ham. I would not recommend this book to a beginning reader. Parts of the story are confusing, the wording and rhyming makes you stumble, therefore making it difficult to read. Although, this is a good book for you to read to your kids who are ages 5 and up or students who are in 1st-3rd grade. The illustrations and colors that the author used are sure the catch the young readers attention.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted July 25, 2011

    This book is AWESOME!

    My son (Age 7) wrote a review for this book. "I liked this book because it was funny. I liked this book because Sam i Am is funny. One thing from the book that I found interesting was the picture when he was about to try the green eggs and ham."

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted March 10, 2011

    I Also Recommend:

    Hop on Pop
    Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!
    Oh, the Places You'll Go!
    One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
    The Foot Book: Dr. Seuss's Wacky Book of Opposites

    Of all ages-You will LOVE this book

    Green Eggs and Ham is an all time Dr. Seuss favorite. It has been read time after time in the classroom, at bedtime, etc. This is a great book for the family, ranging from three year olds to adults!

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted December 8, 2010

    Green eggs and ham

    Green eggs and ham is a beloved book by all ages. From kids to adults the rhyming scheme of the story help reading deployment with funny aspects.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted August 17, 2010

    more from this reviewer

    Wonderful Children's Book

    This is the 1st book I remember reading from my childhood. Before I could read it by myself, my mother made it so exciting! By the few simple words used she could use the inflection in her voice to make me interested. We read the book repeatedly until I could read it on my own. I am not going to say if you read this to your child over and over they will be a GREAT reader but I was inspired to constantly read; and maybe it would work for your child. I read "Gone With The Wind" by age 8. I've not stopped reading and will be "Lordy, Lordy 40" soon.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted June 3, 2010

    I Also Recommend:

    The Cat in the Hat
    Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book
    Oh, the Places You'll Go!
    One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
    Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?: Dr. Seuss's Book of Wonderful Noises (Bright and Early Board Books Series)

    We love green eggs and ham

    I read green eggs and ham almost every night to my children. Its catchy funny and it teaches your children to try knew things

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted May 15, 2010

    Love this book.

    This was always one of my favorites growing up. I am now to happy to be able to share Green Eggs and Ham with my daughter. She absolutely loves the silly pictures and funny words. She likes to sit and flip through the pages on her own almost as much as likes to have us read the book to her. She is one now and I hope she loves this book as much as I did as she gets older. She loves all of the Dr Seuss books but this is one of her favorites. She has us read it over and over again, not wanting to stop. I would probly be really annoyed with any other book.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted April 20, 2010

    I hate Dr. Seuss but my son loves him

    These books drive me crazy and, in my opinion, they're just too long! They go on forever with repetitive verse. What drives me crazy enthralls my two year-old, so I have to keep buying...

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted April 8, 2010

    I do like it Sam I am

    Who doesn't like Green Eggs and Ham!?

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted March 30, 2010

    epic book

    you'll never read anything this good.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 111 Customer Reviews
If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble
Why is this product inappropriate?
Comments (optional)