Going into my first years of school, I was always skeptical of reading. I mainly enjoyed playing with video games or even toys when I was a young child, but I never really found books interesting. I would often find myself wanting to do something else, which distracted me from developing an interesting in reading or even learning how to read. However, my parents introduced me to Dr. Seuss, and his books ended up creating that interest that I greatly needed growing up.

Known for his books such as The Cat in the Hat and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Dr. Seuss mainly wrote children’s books with illustrations meant to grab the young reader’s attention. Since many people in their younger ages – including me – found plain text in books boring to look at and read for as long as a given book could last for. The fact that Dr. Seuss made reading interesting with the illustrations created interest and motivation to read that was not found prior to that. Without Dr. Seuss, many would probably have no interest in reading books and would struggle in finishing many school assignments that involves heavy reading and analysis of the text.

With Dr. Seuss, I found reading to be fun and looked forward to every story that he had to tell about some of the characters. Even though I have not read Dr. Seuss in a while, I vividly remember the joy I found in hearing my parents read the stories to me before I went to bed. The joy he brought with his books made me interested in reading and even though many of us feel like we are too old to read it anymore – I know I certainly feel that way at times -, I also feel that sometimes it is important to look back and remember some things that made up our childhood and how it made us who we are today.

Several titles by Dr. Seuss are available to checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. They are also available to download for free from Libby.