I recently went back and reread one of my all time favorite children's picture books: Green Eggs and Ham. The plot of the story is obviously simple, but a few nuances of the book were quite surprising this time around.
In Green Eggs and Ham, Sam-I-Am attempts to get the other character to taste the green eggs and ham. His friend will not try the dish no matter what Sam-I-Am does. Sam-I-Am asks his friend to try the dish with a mouse, in a house, with a fox, in a box, in a car, in a tree, on a train, in the dark, with a goat and on a boat. Finally, he tries the green eggs and ham, and of course, finds that he actually enjoys the dish.
I believe this book is supposed to teach children a lesson about trying new things that they might not otherwise try. I know that several children after having read this book went out and tried green eggs and ham. As a child, I did not know what green eggs and ham were, and they actually made me think that the meat and eggs were rotten. However, I now know that they are actually green because of an addition of spinach and pesto sauce.
The illustrations in this book, much like Dr. Seuss' other books, are exquisite. The characters are not life-like people, but they are figures that are interesting and different. The illustrator also took the liberty of adding many great contraptions to the book such as the extendable arm on which to present the green eggs and ham.
I also decided to find out a little bit more about the book and was surprised to learn that Dr. Seuss wrote this book using only 50 words. All but one of the words is monosyllabic, and they are almost all of Germanic origin. The 50 words used in the book are as follows: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you. It is said that Dr. Seuss' publisher bet him that he could not write a book in 50 words or less, and Dr. Seuss proved him wrong!
I was grateful for the opportunity to reintroduce myself to this book, and enjoyed every second of it!
In Green Eggs and Ham, Sam-I-Am attempts to get the other character to taste the green eggs and ham. His friend will not try the dish no matter what Sam-I-Am does. Sam-I-Am asks his friend to try the dish with a mouse, in a house, with a fox, in a box, in a car, in a tree, on a train, in the dark, with a goat and on a boat. Finally, he tries the green eggs and ham, and of course, finds that he actually enjoys the dish.
I believe this book is supposed to teach children a lesson about trying new things that they might not otherwise try. I know that several children after having read this book went out and tried green eggs and ham. As a child, I did not know what green eggs and ham were, and they actually made me think that the meat and eggs were rotten. However, I now know that they are actually green because of an addition of spinach and pesto sauce.
The illustrations in this book, much like Dr. Seuss' other books, are exquisite. The characters are not life-like people, but they are figures that are interesting and different. The illustrator also took the liberty of adding many great contraptions to the book such as the extendable arm on which to present the green eggs and ham.
I also decided to find out a little bit more about the book and was surprised to learn that Dr. Seuss wrote this book using only 50 words. All but one of the words is monosyllabic, and they are almost all of Germanic origin. The 50 words used in the book are as follows: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you. It is said that Dr. Seuss' publisher bet him that he could not write a book in 50 words or less, and Dr. Seuss proved him wrong!
I was grateful for the opportunity to reintroduce myself to this book, and enjoyed every second of it!
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