If I Ran the Circus

This has re-entered circulation, now repeated three times a day in our household. It’s a wonderful, weird book. The Circus McGurkis is a story of excess, mostly without judgement— because imaginative excess is something to celebrate. The hero’s excesses are mirrored by the book’s excesses, concepts are reshuffled and repeated, and countless examples of “side shows” for the circus are brought out—making the book far longer than it needs to be. The verses on each page, similarly, are excessive...if you’re reading this aloud for the third time in a day, you inevitably give into the temptation to drop a rhyming couplet here or there, or indeed thumb past a page or two. It’s all so...unnecessary. An editor would not have show more let this pass...except that it mirrors the whole point. It’s what makes the book so great, so stupendous-stu-roarus. A great deal of human endeavor is unnecessary. Humans are creatures that delight in excess and devote themselves to the unnecessary with inexplicable fervor. This ridiculous children’s book explores this feeling, that unrestrained joy at 128 crayons or a pastry shop’s long rows of glass covered indulgence. show less

Morris McGurk imagines the amazing circus he would create in the empty lot behind Sneelock's Store in this rhyming romp of a picture-book. From amazing animal acts to daring stunts from Sneelock himself, our young narrator is convinced that The Circus McGurkus would be the best show on earth...

First published in 1956, If I Ran the Circus was Dr. Seuss' twelfth picture-book, and it offers a variation on a theme that was fast becoming, at this point in his children's book career, a staple in his work. Namely, the idea of a young narrator who describes a fantastic catalogue of imaginary creatures. Prior titles falling into this general category include McElligot's Pool (1947), If I Ran the Zoo (1950) and Scrambled Eggs Super! (1953). I show more recall reading this one as a girl - the image of Sneelock standing inside his store immediately jumped out at me, as one I had encountered before - but I don't have strong memories of it, overall. I picked it up for this reread as part of my recently begun Dr. Seuss retrospective, in which I will be reading and reviewing forty-four of his classic picture-books, in chronological publication order. This is a project I undertook as an act of personal protest against the suppression of six of the author/artist's titles - And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, McElligot's Pool, If I Ran the Zoo, Scrambled Eggs Super!, On Beyond Zebra! and The Cat's Quizzer - by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, because they contain outdated and potentially offensive elements. See my review of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, to be found HERE, for a fuller exploration of my thoughts on that matter.

In any case, I found If I Ran the Circus to be an entertaining title, full of all of the rhyming fun, fantastical creatures, and zany artwork that I have come to identify with Dr. Seuss' work. Like so many of his books, it offers a pean to the almost limitless powers of a child's imagination, as Morris McGurk makes up all kinds of unusual creatures, and envisions all kinds of unlikely acts for them to perform, in his amazing circus. Despite this cornucopia of creatively imagined beings, I think what I liked the most about the story was the figure of Sneelock, whose versatility (at least, in Morris' mind) makes him the star of the show. There's something rather amusing about the way that Morris thinks Sneelock would be only too happy to help him, no matter how outlandish the task, because the two are friendly. This running joke finds its culmination on the final page, as Sneelock, hitherto depicted with his eyes closed, while enjoying his pipe, is shown with eyes wide open, presumably in alarm. Although this isn't one that I would consider a favorite, when it comes to Dr. Seuss' work, it is quite entertaining, and is one I would recommend to picture-book readers looking for fun stories featuring imaginative youngsters. show less

The Circus McGurkus is the world’s greatest show and Morris McGurk is certain that the vacant lot behind Sneelock’s Store would be the perfect spot to set up the circus. And that’s just what he intends to do!

The rhyming text, replete with a variety of Seussian-isms and the good Doctor’s trademark delightful silliness is sure to delight readers both young and old.

Highly recommended.

This Seuss title is a bit long for storytime, but it has excellent tongue twisters and language patterns - maybe pick a few pages to read aloud as part of a circus-themed storytime.

Suess once again runs wild with his creativity, proposing every more wildly outrageous scenarios for a circus. Pretty cute examination of what happens when your imagination gets slightly out of control.

Dr. Seuss books can often be repetitive. However, "If I Ran the Circus," seemed different for a few reasons. First, I think it has great potential in the classroom. Students could imagine what they would want to run, if not a circus and develop a nonsensical plan like Morris McGurk of their own. Next, I liked how Dr. Seuss used language in this book. Dr. Seuss plays with words and patterns; the deeper he gets into the story, the grander the plan becomes, the more twisted the language becomes. This book would be a fun way to do a word study. For example, "Colossal, stupendous, astounding, fantastic, terrific, and tremendous" are all synonyms and "Odd jobs" is an idiom. Grammar is introduced with the juggler. I also enjoyed his over show more application of language components in this case the suffix -ster, with the words youngsters and oldsters. I could even see students playing Dr. Seuss Scrabble with this book!
Dr. Seuss's theme my be subtle, but he does mention conservation, in regards to cleaning up the unused cluttered lot and putting it to good use. In another subtle way he is emphasizing being a good neighbor and helping out the community by cleaning up. The language in this book really enhances the illustrations. Text and graphics need to be together. The pictures would not make sense without it. This would be fun as a read aloud and also has a lot of teachable moments in it is as well. show less

Tudo que eu esperava até o final do livro era uma revolução proletária animal.

A Dr. Seuss original sprinkled with inflectional endings, prosody and alliteration. This story featuring circus characters crawling with charisma is a great way to showcase creative writing elements to children of all ages.