Oh the Places He Went A story About Dr. Seuss (Creative Minds Biography)

This book is an excellent biography of children's author Theodore Geisel - better known as Dr. Seuss - geared for children in upper elementary / middle school (although I'm not sure if by that age some children might start to feel like Dr. Seuss is "babyish" and therefore wouldn't want to read about his life). However, I would even recommend this for some adults who want to learn a little more about a beloved author whose books they cherished as children or to find out more in order to share interesting facts with their children who are just discovering Dr. Seuss. I definitely learned a lot about Geisel's life through this book that I hadn't previously known, such as his work in film media (both WWII propaganda documentaries and show more children's cartoon and live-action movies). A well-researched book, fun facts abound in it, including quotes from Geisel himself. For instance, I loved this gem of a passage: Ted explained, "My animals look the way they do because I can't draw." He called his method "exaggerated mistakes." Once Ted was supposed to draw a goat for an advertising billboard. The ad executive thought the goat resembled a duck. So Ted drew him a duck. The client thought it was a terrific goat." Of course, because it is intended for children, some of less pretty things in Geisel's life are watered down. For instance, his first wife Helen simply "died at home," not intentionally overdosed on barbiturates due to a long battle with cancer and a realization that her husband was falling in love with some else. Likewise, when Geisel soon afterwards married that other woman, it's a happy passage: "Fortunately, however, Ted found someone to share both sadness and celebration. Audrey Stone Diamond had been a friend to both Ted and Helen for several years, and now she became Ted's wife." All messiness is swept under the table, arguably as it should be. The book contains some pencil drawings as well, which I feel like didn't add much to the reading experience but could be helpful for children who still like to see some visuals. Overall, I thought this was a great behind-the-scenes introduction to the man who created such classics as The Cat in the Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and more. It definitely inspired me to go read more of his books that I had missed in childhood, especially now that I knew the backstories behind how he came up with those particular stories. Hopefully it would do the same for the children who read it. show less

Oh, the Places He Went spans from Theodor Geisel's childhood to death. The book highlights many of the memorable and humorous moments in Geisel's life, along with informing the reader on how Geisel became Dr. Seuss. Personally, I found myself inspired by the adventures described within this biography. I would recommend this to children and adults who grew up reading Dr. Seuss. The illustrations are filled with a great amount of detail and successfully show Geisel age slowly throughout the book.

Oh, the Places He Went A story about Dr. Seuss, written by Maryann N Weidt, illustrated by Karry Maguire, and published in 1994 by Carolrhoda Books, is a biographical chapter book on the greatest children’s author in history, Dr. Seuss. This is a magical book that takes us into the life of Dr Seuss. The illustrations, engaging details of his life, and how he came up with his beloved characters, really opened me up to one of my favorite authors. The illustrations in this book are spread randomly through the book in black and grey pencil design. These illustrations helped to bring the story closer to reality and gave me a visualization of Dr Seuss. I also feel that the illustrations enhance the story and fit the written text. On page 35 show more we see Dr Seuss drawing in his studio at his house. In the text we read that his studio was full of different paper types and that he would have a high pile of rejected drawings. In the illustration to go along with this we see Dr. Seuss completely emerged in his drawings and writings. This illustration shows us how the illustrator brought us closer to the story. This book gave me more insight to Dr Seuss than I have ever known. I did not know that he won three academy awards in his lifetime for his work in the film industry. What shocked me the most about this whole biographical book is that, at one point, Dr Seuss says he thought he was never a great artist. This honestly shocked me. I thought that t Dr Seuss is one of the best artists to ever draw a children’s book. Before reading this piece I did not know that one of his works, The Butter Battle Book, spent six months on the New York Times best seller list. This list is usually reserved for young adult or adult books. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that one of his works appeared on the NY time’s Best Sellers list. Nobody quite know what a Sneech is, or what a Onceler is. I have always been curious as to what Dr Seuss’ inspiration was for his characters and his characters name. It turns out that they came from the world around him. According to the book Dr. Seuss was on a train when a rather stern looking man gave him the idea to create The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins. Another time Dr Seuss created his beloved character of the Lorax while observing strange animals and plants in Africa. Life’s journey is the big idea for this story. The title of the book is a play on words of one of his most famous pieces Oh the Places You’ll GO. This book is all about how Dr Seuss traveled his life and how we can all travel our lives journeys. show less

This biography of Theodore Geisel is easy to read and very interesting. It is well researched, well written and full of neat facts. It is a little on the short side.

SUMMARY
The book chronicles the life of Dr. Seuss from his childhood in Fairfield, MA to his incredible success as a bestselling children's author. It talked about how he got his start with Cat in the Hat, as well as health issues and battling with throat cancer and heart attacks.

REVIEW
Of the biographies I read, this one was the one that lacked something for me. I felt like the writing was pretty dull and that the illustrations didn't really add anything to the quality of the story. There was only one illustration that I really like that was on page 55. It showed Dr. Seuss drawing a man that he was basing a character off of. It was interesting to see the connections between the man and the character. This book provided a lot of show more information about him. show less

Genre: Biography - This book is an excellent example of a biography because the content of the book is factual information about Dr. Seuss himself. The author went into great detail about him, and in the back of the book she can back up her facts and stories with a bibliography of sources. This book described everything about him, where he lived, who he married, why he wrote his books, previous jobs, issues with other people, etc. If you want to know a lot of details about his life and why he was so weird this is a great book to read.

It is hard to evaluate a biography on any of these three things...
Plot: The plot of this book was Ted Seuss Geisel's life. If the plot was different from what actually happened in his life then it would no show more longer be a biography it would be a realistic fiction book. This plot is essential for this book, a biography.

Art Media: pencil drawings show less

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