100 Fun Facts About Dr. Seuss

In which Massachusetts city was Theodor Geisel born in 1904?

Springfield's zoo fed his imagination: his father, who went on to run the city's parks and the zoo itself, liked taking young Ted behind the scenes there.

Geisel's birthday, March 2, is celebrated in US schools as the date of which annual reading event?

Read Across America Day is run by the National Education Association, the teachers' union, which has since widened it from Seuss into a year-round push for diverse and inclusive books.

Which Ivy League college did Geisel attend, editing its humor magazine before graduating in 1925?

Dartmouth later made the 'Dr.' real: Geisel never finished a doctorate, so in the 1950s his old college awarded him an honorary one.

Why did Geisel first start signing his college cartoons "Seuss"?

To keep drawing after being banned from it: caught with bootleg gin during Prohibition, he was ousted from the campus humor magazine, so he slipped his cartoons in under his middle name.

Which English university did Geisel leave without a degree after his future wife urged him to draw for a living instead?

Oxford: he went to Lincoln College to study English literature, but Helen Palmer saw his notebooks full of fabulous animals and persuaded him to give up teaching and draw instead.

Americans rhyme "Seuss" with "goose", but the German name, as Geisel himself said it, rhymed with which word?

Voice: Seuss was his middle name and his mother's German maiden name, said 'Zoice'; the American version stuck so firmly that he ended up using it himself.

Geisel first won fame with cartoon ads crying "Quick, Henry, the Flit!" for what kind of product?

Bug spray: Geisel said the job came by luck, after an ad executive's wife saw his cartoon joking about Flit at her hairdresser's and urged her husband to sign him.

Dr. Seuss said the rhythm of what inspired And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street?

A ship's engines: sailing home from Europe in 1936, he found himself reciting verse to their beat, and the rhythm stayed in his head until he built a story on it.

Geisel said he was heading home to do what with his much-rejected first book when he met an old friend?

Burn it, he said: instead the friend, hired that very morning as a children's editor at Vanguard Press, took him up to the office, and And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street was signed.

Geisel's wartime cartoons for the New York paper PM kept mocking which famous aviator for opposing US entry into the war?

Charles Lindbergh, hero of American isolationists, drew Geisel's fire: he said he found himself drawing 'Lindbergh the Ostrich' instead of Horton, and produced over 400 cartoons for PM.

Which Oscar-winning 1950 cartoon, based on a Dr. Seuss story, follows a boy who speaks only in sound effects?

Gerald McBoing-Boing began on a 1950 children's record; in the cartoon the boy is teased and shunned for his noises until his odd talent makes him famous.

Geisel said he was proudest of The Cat in the Hat for helping to kill off which school-primer duo?

Dick and Jane's primers were blamed in a 1954 Life article for boring children out of reading, so a publisher handed Geisel a short word list and asked for a book first-graders couldn't put down.

Which comedian played the title role in the 2003 live-action film of The Cat in the Hat?

Mike Myers was a casting choice Geisel's widow, Audrey, disliked; after critics panned the film, she vowed never to allow another live-action movie of his books.

In The Cat in the Hat, what is the name of the narrator's sister?

Sally is the only child Dr. Seuss names: her brother narrates the whole book without one, so the 2003 film had to invent his, Conrad.

What does the Cat in the Hat carry into the house to release Thing One and Thing Two?

A big red box: the Cat lifts its hook and out run Thing One and Thing Two, who fly kites down the hall until the boy catches them in a net.

In The Cat in the Hat Comes Back (1958), what colour stain does the Cat spread over the house and the snow?

Pink: the ring starts in the bathtub where the Cat eats cake, and every attempt to wipe it off only moves it, to Mother's dress, the wall, the shoes, the rug and the bed.

Geisel said the idea for Horton Hears a Who! came from his postwar visit to which Asian country?

Japan: Geisel had drawn harsh anti-Japanese cartoons in wartime, but after seeing people there voting and running their own lives he wrote the book and dedicated it to a Japanese friend.

Which Dr. Seuss character spends a whole book pestering an unnamed grump to try a strange dish?

Sam-I-Am wins in the end: after refusing on a boat, with a goat, in the rain and on a train, the grump takes one bite, loves the dish and thanks him.

Which Dr. Seuss book won him a bet that he could not write one using only 50 different words?

Green Eggs and Ham answered a dare from Bennett Cerf of Random House, who made the bet because The Cat in the Hat had needed more than four times as many words.

Geisel said the Grinch was inspired by whose sour face, glimpsed the morning after Christmas 1956?

His own, in the mirror: Geisel called the Grinch a nasty anti-Christmas character 'that was really me', and wrote the book to rediscover a holiday he felt he had lost.

What is the name of the Grinch's dog, who pulls his sleigh disguised as a reindeer?

Max is drafted because the Grinch has no reindeer for his Santa disguise, so he ties a horn to the dog's head and makes him haul the sleigh up Mount Crumpit.

Which horror-film legend both narrated the 1966 Grinch TV special and voiced the Grinch himself?

Boris Karloff did both speaking parts but not the singing: the special's famous song went to an uncredited bass, and many viewers assumed it was him.

Thurl Ravenscroft, the uncredited singer of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch", voiced which cereal mascot for over 50 years?

Tony the Tiger's booming 'They're gr-r-reat!' was his from the 1950s until his death in 2005; because the Grinch credits left him out, many viewers assumed the narrator had sung the song.

Which actor wore heavy green prosthetic makeup to play the Grinch in Ron Howard's 2000 live-action film?

Jim Carrey likened the makeup to being buried alive, so the producer hired a specialist in withstanding torture to coach him through the shoot.

Who voiced the Grinch in Illumination's 2018 animated film?

Benedict Cumberbatch dropped his English accent for the part, reasoning that since the rest of the cast was American the Grinch should sound American too.

In Horton Hears a Who!, on what does Horton set down the speck of dust that holds Whoville?

A clover becomes Whoville's perch because Horton hears a tiny cry for help from the speck and vows to protect it, insisting that a person's a person, no matter how small.

In Horton Hears a Who!, what is the one shirker playing with while the rest of Whoville shouts to be heard?

A yo-yo keeps little Jo-Jo busy until the Mayor finds him; his single 'Yopp!' is the extra sound that finally lets the jungle animals hear the Whos.

Which lazy bird tricks Horton into sitting on her egg while she flies off to Palm Beach?

Mayzie promises a short break and never comes back; Horton sits through storms, hunters and a circus until the egg hatches into an elephant-bird that takes after him.

In The Lorax, what is the name of the highly versatile garment the Once-ler knits from Truffula tufts?

A Thneed is, in the Once-ler's sales pitch, a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need, and demand for it drives him to cut down every last Truffula tree.

Which comic actor voiced the Lorax in the 2012 animated film released on Geisel's birthday?

Danny DeVito's Lorax shares the film with two new characters, Ted and Audrey, named for Theodor Geisel and his widow, Audrey.

In The Sneetches, what marks out the snobbish Sneetches who think they are the best?

A green star on their bellies stops meaning anything once a con man's machines add and remove stars for a fee, until no Sneetch can tell who was who.

In a Dr. Seuss poem, a mother regrets giving all 23 sons which first name?

Dave: whenever she calls one, all 23 come running, so she spends the rest of 'Too Many Daves' wishing she had picked wilder names instead.

Geisel said the tyrannical turtle king Yertle was meant to represent which real dictator?

Hitler: Geisel, who had drawn anti-Nazi cartoons during the war, said Yertle's rule over the pond and grab for everything he could see echoed the dictator's regime.

In Yertle the Turtle, what act by Mack at the bottom of the stack topples the king?

A burp: Geisel said nobody had ever burped in a children's book before, and it took a decision from the publisher's president before his 'vulgar turtle' could do it.

What trivial difference divides the Yooks and Zooks in The Butter Battle Book?

Which side of the bread they spread: Yooks butter theirs on top, Zooks underneath, and the quarrel escalates weapon by weapon into Dr. Seuss's parable of the nuclear arms race.

Which 1950 Seuss book, about a boy imagining wild new creatures, is credited with first printing the word "nerd"?

If I Ran the Zoo lists 'a Nerd' among the beasts its boy narrator would collect; the slang sense surfaced in 1951, and dictionaries say Seuss perhaps inspired it.

Which sticky green stuff from a 1949 Seuss book later gave its name to a cornstarch-and-water experiment?

Oobleck is the new weather the King of Didd orders from his royal magicians because he is tired of rain, sun, fog and snow, and the sticky storm nearly smothers his kingdom.

Dr. Seuss is famous for rhyme, but The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1938) is written in what form?

Prose: it is told as a plain story, not in verse, about a boy who cannot bare his head before King Derwin because a new hat appears each time he takes one off.

Which 1965 Dr. Seuss book of tongue twisters opens by warning readers that it is dangerous and must be read slowly?

Fox in Socks ends with the exasperated Mr. Knox turning the tables: he stuffs the Fox into a bottle with the battling tweetle beetles and reels off a twister of his own.

Which 1963 Seuss book carries the subtitle "The Simplest Seuss for Youngest Use"?

Hop on Pop teaches basic phonics with short rhyming pairs, and its title is a warning, not an invitation: Pop ends the hopping by telling his children they must not hop on him.

Which 1990 book, the last published in Geisel's lifetime, quickly became a standard graduation gift?

Oh, the Places You'll Go! was written for adults as much as children, which kept it on the New York Times bestseller list for more than a year and made it a staple present for graduates.

Which Seuss book was reprinted in 1974 with its hero renamed "Richard M. Nixon"?

Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now! got the edit from Geisel himself: he crossed out the name throughout a copy for columnist Art Buchwald, who printed it, and Nixon resigned days later.

Which pen name did Geisel use for books he wrote but others illustrated, such as Ten Apples Up On Top!?

Theo LeSieg is Geisel spelled backwards: he kept 'Dr. Seuss' for books he drew himself, and signed one 1975 collaboration 'Rosetta Stone', a nod to his wife Audrey's maiden name.

Which honor did Geisel receive in 1984 as a special citation for his children's books?

Pulitzer Prize: the special citation honored nearly half a century of Dr. Seuss books, though Geisel had once hoped to save his real name for novels.

Seuss Landing, a land built with almost no straight lines, belongs to which company's Orlando theme-park resort?

Universal opened Seuss Landing in 1999 as part of Islands of Adventure; to match his drawings it even planted palm trees bent by Hurricane Andrew.

The ALA's Geisel Award, first presented in 2006, honours the year's most distinguished book for whom?

Beginning readers were the audience Geisel won over with The Cat in the Hat, so librarians named for him the medal that honours each year's best book written for them.

Which Dr. Seuss book has a boy sharing his house with a Nooth Grush and a Yottle?

There's a Wocket in My Pocket! gives each creature a home that rhymes with its name: the Nooth Grush lives on the toothbrush and the Yottle in the bottle.

Geisel lived and wrote for decades in La Jolla, a seaside neighborhood of which California city?

San Diego's university campus renamed its main library for Geisel in 1995 after his widow, Audrey, gave $20 million, and it holds the original drawings for his wartime cartoons.

In The Lorax, which single word does the departing Lorax leave on a small pile of rocks?

Unless: the Once-ler puzzles over it for years before telling a boy what it means, that nothing will improve unless someone cares, and handing him the last Truffula seed.

In the 1953 Dr. Seuss film The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T., what giant instrument must 500 captive boys play?

Piano: Dr. T. needs all 5,000 of their fingers on one keyboard; the film flopped in 1953 and soured Geisel on Hollywood, but it later won a devoted cult following.

Dr. Seuss summed up his job with a quip about children: "You have 'em; I'll" do what?

"Entertain 'em" came from a man who, for all the children's books he sold, never had any children of his own.

Dr. Seuss edited which picture-book series at launch, cutting its creators' names to 'Stan and Jan'?

The Berenstain Bears nearly stopped at one book: Geisel told the couple there were already too many bears in print, then phoned to say the first title was selling fast.

In How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, which dish does the reformed Grinch carve at the Whos' feast?

Roast beast was a deliberate pun: stuck for an ending that did not preach, Geisel simply sat the Grinch at the Whos' table and let him do the carving.

In The Cat in the Hat, which family pet scolds the Cat and keeps telling him to leave?

A fish speaks up for the house rules, even after the Cat balances it on the tip of his umbrella and it lands in a pot. It is also the first to spot Mother coming home.

Which comedian wore the striped hat in the 2003 live-action film of The Cat in the Hat?

Mike Myers's film so displeased Geisel's widow, Audrey, that she barred any further live-action adaptations of her husband's books.

Which singer voiced Audrey, the girl who longs to see a real tree, in the 2012 film The Lorax?

Taylor Swift's character is named after Geisel's widow, Audrey, and the boy who goes looking for a tree for her is called Ted, after the author himself.

Which industry's supporters objected to The Lorax on a California school reading list in the 1980s?

Logging was the trade some townspeople said the book treated unfairly. A wood-flooring association later published a pro-timber reply called Truax.

Which family business did Dr. Seuss's father manage until Prohibition forced it to close?

A brewery was the Geisel family trade. Once Prohibition closed it, his father was appointed to supervise the city's public park system instead.

The Cat in the Hat was Dr. Seuss's answer to dull school primers starring which pair of children?

Dick and Jane were the target: Geisel later called it the book he was proudest of, because it had helped to finish off those primers.

Which animal is Dr. Seuss's Thidwick, the kindly host whose antlers fill up with freeloading guests?

A moose with good timing: Thidwick escapes a hunting party by shedding his antlers, and his ungrateful lodgers end up stuffed and mounted on a club wall.

Which Dr. Seuss character interrupts the Grinch mid-theft and is sent away with a crafty lie?

Cindy-Lou Who is the only resident of Whoville to see the thief at work. In the 1966 TV special she was voiced by June Foray, who got no screen credit.

In The Cat in the Hat, what do Thing One and Thing Two fly indoors, knocking pictures off the wall?

Kites flown indoors also snag Mother's new polka-dotted dress, and that is when the boy decides the visit has gone far enough.

Why are the two children stuck indoors with nothing to do at the start of The Cat in the Hat?

It is raining, and cold too, so the pair can only stare wistfully out of the window while their mother is away. That boredom is the opening the Cat walks into.

At which English university did Dr. Seuss abandon a literature doctorate to become a cartoonist?

Oxford is where a fellow student, struck by the fabulous animals that filled his notebooks, talked him out of teaching English and into drawing for a living.

In The Lorax, which single word is left carved on a small pile of rocks when the Lorax departs?

Unless is the puzzle the Once-ler only solves at the end of his own story: nothing will get better until somebody cares enough to act.

Horton hears a speck of dust speak on the 15th of May while bathing in the Jungle of what?

Nool rhymes neatly with the pool Horton is splashing in when he first hears the speck. The other animals there soon start to mock him for listening to it.

In Horton Hears a Who!, which sour animal is first to mock Horton, echoed by her youngster?

A kangaroo, called only the Sour Kangaroo, turns the other animals on Horton. They tie him up and threaten to boil the speck in Beezle-Nut oil.

Which Dr. Seuss character can copy a cow, a bee, a popping cork and even a hippopotamus chewing gum?

Mr. Brown can also do a goldfish kiss and an egg sizzling in a frying pan, and the narrator ends by asking the reader to try every one of the sounds.

Which Florida theme park resort is home to Seuss Landing, built with almost no straight lines?

Universal Orlando gave Dr. Seuss a whole island of its Islands of Adventure park, which opened in May 1999 with Seuss Landing among its first lands.

In The Cat in the Hat, Thing One and Thing Two wear red suits, but what colour is their hair?

Blue hair tops both of the identical Things, who run riot through the house until the boy finally catches the pair in a net.

Which Great Lake did Dr. Seuss cut from The Lorax after scientists wrote to him about its clean-up?

Erie lost its mention, "I hear things are just as bad up in Lake Erie", more than fourteen years after the book came out, once two Ohio researchers wrote in.

A visit to which country led Dr. Seuss to write Horton Hears a Who!, dedicated to a friend there?

Japan was a country he had drawn harshly in wartime. After visiting, Geisel changed his views and wrote the book as an allegory of the American occupation.

Which Looney Tunes director, a wartime colleague of Dr. Seuss, made the 1966 Grinch TV special?

Chuck Jones had made Army training cartoons with Geisel during World War II, and the Grinch's now-familiar colouring made its debut in his special.

Which comic actor voiced the Mayor of Whoville in the 2008 animated film of Horton Hears a Who!?

Steve Carell's Mayor Ned McDodd is a high-strung but good-hearted father of 96 daughters and a single son.

In the 1966 TV special How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, what kind of home does the Grinch keep?

A snowbound cave on the side of Mount Crumpit is his lair, and the mountain's peak is where he hauls the loaded sleigh, meaning to tip everything into an abyss.

In Horton Hatches the Egg, hunters capture Horton and ship him overseas to be shown off in what?

A circus takes him on tour, still perched on the nest, and one stop happens to be near the beach resort where the egg's real mother has been idling.

In The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, what does Little Cat Z keep under his hat that cleans the snow?

Voom is never explained, as the narrator admits: "Now, don't ask me what Voom is, I never will know." It was the one word not drawn from Geisel's early-reader list.

In a spooky Dr. Seuss tale, which empty item of clothing keeps appearing before the scared narrator?

A pair of pants, pale green and with nobody inside, turns out to be just as scared as he is: when he screams for help it starts to cry, and the two end up friends.

In which Dr. Seuss story do two stubborn creatures meet face to face and both refuse to step aside?

The Zax, one heading north and one south, stand with arms crossed for so long that a highway overpass is eventually built around them.

To which California seaside community did Dr. Seuss move after World War II and stay for life?

La Jolla is where he went back to writing children's books once the war was over, and where he died at home in 1991 at the age of 87.

Which university renamed its main library in 1995 for Dr. Seuss and his wife Audrey?

UC San Diego's Geisel Library is a campus landmark in its own right, a building described as a nexus between brutalism and futurism.

Which children's author met Dr. Seuss in class in England, married him and urged him to draw?

Helen Palmer had taught English at a Brooklyn high school before she went to England. She later wrote children's books of her own, such as Why I Built the Boogle House.

Which bumbling cartoon soldier starred in Army training films Dr. Seuss wrote in World War II?

Private Snafu showed soldiers what not to do, and his name was Army slang spelled out: Situation Normal, All Fouled Up, in the polite version.

Which author of a book about a hatchling seeking its mother served under Dr. Seuss in the Army?

P. D. Eastman was drafted into the Signal Corps film unit that Geisel headed and stayed his protégé, later writing Are You My Mother? for the same publisher.

Which Random House imprint did Dr. Seuss co-found, with the Cat in the Hat as its logo?

Beginner Books was co-founded in 1957 with Phyllis Cerf, and its early authors included his own wife and the publisher Bennett Cerf.

Dr. Seuss was three times a runner-up for which children's book prize but never won it?

Caldecott Medal juries named three of his books from 1947 to 1950 as runners-up, McElligot's Pool among them, but the top prize always went elsewhere.

Where did Theodor Geisel get the 'Seuss' that he first signed on his college cartoons?

His mother's maiden name was also his own middle name: he was born Theodor Seuss Geisel, so only the "Dr." was made up.

Which puppeteer's company produced The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss for Nickelodeon in the 1990s?

Jim Henson's company made the Cat in the Hat the puppet host of the show, introducing stories with Horton, the Grinch and others against digitally animated backgrounds.

Dr. Seuss's You're Only Old Once!, set in the Golden Years Clinic, is subtitled 'A Book for' whom?

Obsolete Children was his own phrase for adults. The book came out on his 82nd birthday and follows an elderly patient through long waits and bizarre medical tests.

Which 1939 Dr. Seuss book flopped so badly that copies were remaindered in cigar stores?

The Seven Lady Godivas, written for adults, sold only about 2,500 of its 10,000 copies. Geisel called it his greatest failure and admitted he could not draw convincing naked women.

Which Dr. Seuss book was published in 2015 from a manuscript found in a box of leftover sketches?

What Pet Should I Get? began as 16 illustrations and some typed text labelled The Pet Shop, and it stars the same brother and sister as one of his 1960 books.

Which Dr. Seuss book, inventing letters such as Yuzz and Wum, was one of six withdrawn in 2021?

On Beyond Zebra! has a young narrator who refuses to stop at Z and reports on twenty further letters, each with a fantastic creature to go with it.

Which boy is the dreamer in both And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street and McElligot's Pool?

Marco returned a decade after his debut, staring into a trash-filled pond while a local farmer laughs that he will never catch anything.

In Horton Hears a Who!, what kind of animals are the Wickersham Brothers, who harass Horton?

Monkeys they may be, but they hand the stolen plant to a black-bottomed eagle called Vlad Vladikoff, who drops it into a patch of look-alikes a hundred miles wide.

Dr. Seuss and his first wife co-wrote which 1947 film that won the Best Documentary Feature Oscar?

Design for Death was built on an Army training film Geisel had written, yet the statuettes went to its producer Sid Rogell and two colleagues, not to the writers.

Which oil company's Essomarine brand did Dr. Seuss promote with a mock fleet called the Seuss Navy?

Standard Oil's campaign made him a public name, complete with a mock deck at the National Motor Boat Show where its "Admirals" posed for photographs.

Which poet completed Dr. Seuss's Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! with illustrator Lane Smith?

Jack Prelutsky expanded the verses and sketches Geisel had left unfinished into a full book, credited to Dr. Seuss "with some help" from the other two.

At the end of The Lorax, what does the Once-ler give the boy, the very last of its kind?

A seed comes with a plea attached: grow a whole new forest from it, and perhaps the Lorax and all the animals will come back.

Which nearly trouble-free Dr. Seuss city has one door, jammed by a Key-Slapping Slippard?

Solla Sollew stays out of reach: turned away at the door, the hero refuses a second journey and heads home to face his troubles instead of running from them.

Which hit-making singer and producer narrated The Grinch, Illumination's 2018 animated film?

Pharrell Williams already knew the studio well, having worked on its Despicable Me films before he took the narrator's part.