Bartholomew and the Oobleck

Young Bartholomew Cubbins and King Derwin of Didd return in this amusing follow-up to their initial adventure, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins. Now a page in the king's castle, Bartholomew is dismayed when the foolish King Derwin decides that snow, sun, rain and fog are boring, and that he wants something new to fall from the sky. Summoning his court magicians, the king commands them to create something new, in the way of weather, and that sinister cabal complies, brewing up a sticky, gooey green substance known as ooblek. Soon everyone in the castle and kingdom is stuck in greenish goo, from the humblest farmer to the king himself, paralyzed on his throne. It falls to Bartholomew to point out the obvious - that this is all the show more king's fault - and to demand an apology. For mysterious reasons, the simple words "I'm Sorry" have a magic all their own...

First published in 1949, some eleven years after the first story featuring Bartholomew Cubbins and King Derwin, Bartholomew and the Ooblek was Dr. Seuss' seventh picture-book, and it was awarded a Caldecott Honor in 1950. It was a perennial favorite in my childhood home, and many are the nights when I asked for it to be read to me, or read it on my own, once I was able. Something about that gooey, sticky ooblek was fascinating to me, as a girl - striking me as simultaneously frightening and funny. My present reread was prompted by my recently undertaken Dr. Seuss retrospective, in which I plan to read and review all forty-four of his classic picture-books, in chronological publication order. It is a project I began 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. 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 Bartholomew and the Ooblek every bit as engaging as I remembered, during this current reread. The story highlights the foolish hubris of King Derwin - also a theme in The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins - who imagines that he can improve upon nature, and have a better form of weather created through artificial means. One could read it as the hubris of humanity, so frequently thinking we can outdo nature, or the hubris of the elite - kings and other leaders imagining it is their right to make such far-reaching decisions by themselves. However one reads it, the consequences of the king's decision demonstrate that such actions have the potential to be immensely destructive, while the conclusion of the story highlights the important role that humility and repentance can play, in restoring harmony to human society, and to the wider world. Learning to admit our mistakes, and to apologize for them, is a difficult lesson sometimes, even for adults, so Dr. Seuss' entertaining little fable, which presents this process in such an amusing way, is most welcome. The accompanying artwork, done in black and white, with a sole color accent - green, for the ooblek - is immensely expressive. The limited color scheme really highlights the outlandish and surprising nature of the ooblek, and brilliantly complements the story. I can easily see why this was awarded a Caldecott Honor, despite the fact that it seems at first glance to be a retreat from Dr. Seuss' more colorful style, first seen in McElligot's Pool. Highly recommended to all picture-book readers, whether they enjoy unusual fairy-tale-style stories, or are fans of the creator. show less

It's not bad, but it's also not what most readers today would recognize as Dr. Seuss: most of the prose doesn't rhyme, the art is sketchy and black-and-white (aside from the green element of the oobleck), and the moral at the end, despite being a good one (be grateful for what you've got), is unusually leaden for a Dr. Seuss story. That all makes it a very interesting curio, but it's not something most kids will want to read over and over. The most fun (and most Seussy) part is the chanting of the royal magicians.

Ok, a cool story about magic gone wrong, and a nifty fable about a king who needs to learn a lesson about hubris. But they do not work together - saying 'I'm sorry' is not going to clean up tons of hazardous waste. If it did, our environmental organizations would have a lot less work to do.

Children's book with exceptional illustrations
This was one of my favorite books growing up in elementary school (probably because we got to make our own Oobleck in 5th grade when we were studying rhyming)! I remember thinking the illustrations were so creative; even though they weren't very realistic, they gave that quality that really caught my eye.

Bored with rain, sun, fog, and snow, King Derwin of Didd summons his royal magicians to create something new and exciting to fall from the sky. What he gets is a storm of sticky green globs called Oobleck, which soon causes a royal mess. But with the assistance of the wise page boy Bartholomew, the king (along with young readers) learns that the simplest words can sometimes solve the biggest problems.

This book was great! I love Dr. Seuss, so this was right up my alley. This story is about a spoiled and bored king. The king is tired of having plain old weather like rain or snow. So, he asks some magicians to give some other type of weather that drops from the sky. They create something called "oobleck". It is sticky and ruins the whole time. Bartholomew, a paperboy, figures out how to stop the horrific weather. All the king has to say is "I'm sorry". It is a humbling story about being happy with what you have. The illustrations were like a typical Dr. Seuss book, basically they were brilliant.

The main characters in the story are Bartholomew the page boy and Old King Derwin. Old King Derwin is a king who is tired of the same four things coming out of the sky: snow, fog, sunshine, and rain. Old King Derwin decides to call on his royal magicians and asks them to create something new to fall out of the sky. The royal magicians created oobleck, a green slime that almost destroys the whole kingdom. Bartholomew the page boy warns the King about the oobleck, but of course, the king doesn't listen to him. After the oobleck nearly destroys the whole kingdom, Bartholomew tells Old King Derwin how sorry he should be, and the king knows it and apologizes. This story teaches us that we can't always get what we want. In the beginning of show more the story, we quickly learn that Old King Derwin is over confident because he is a royal king, and he believes he can do no wrong. The oobleck teaches the king that although he is king, he is not always right. This book is much more different than the Dr. Seuss books I am familiar with, and I was captivated the whole way through. show less