Ferddie's World: Green Eggs and Ham Anyone?

“Do you like green eggs and ham?”

A few of days ago, my wife told me that Joshua was able to read a book from cover to cover. At the early age of five, I thought that was a great achievement. What book you may ask was he able to read in its entirety? He couldn’t have chosen a better children’s book to start a lifetime of reading than with Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham”.

Published in 1960, “Green Eggs and Ham” was the result of a $50 dollar wager between Dr. Seuss (whose real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel) and publisher Bennett Cerf. After finishing “Cat in the Hat” which used only 225 words, Cerf wagered that Dr. Seuss couldn’t come up with a book using only 50 words.

Not only did Dr. Seuss collect on that wager, but came out with one of the most loved and well received children’s book of all time.

The fifty words Dr. Seuss used were:

a like

am may

and me

anywhere mouse

are not

be on

boat or

box rain

car Sam

could say

dark see

do so

eat thank

eggs that

fox the

goat them

good there

green they

ham train

here tree

house try

I will

if with

in would

let you

Trivia # 1: 46 of the 50 words (all except car, Sam, train, and try) are of Germanic origin.

The book’s story is related totally through images and rhyming dialogue in the form of a cumulative tale, with a list of situations that gradually increase as the story moves forward.

Trivia # 2: 49 of the 50 words (except “anywhere”) are monosyllabic.

While Dr. Seuss utilized the anapestic tetrameter (a poetic meter used by many English poets) for most of his works, the meter of Green Eggs and Ham is described as a combination of trochaic and iambic tetrameter.

The iambs could be seen in the following excerpt:

I would not, could not, in a box.

I could not, would not, with a fox.

I will not eat them with a mouse.

I will not eat them in a house.

I will not eat them here or there.

I will not eat them anywhere.

I do not eat green eggs and ham.

I do not like them, Sam-I-am.

Trivia # 3: Dr. Seuss’ birthday is on March 2.

I wasn’t lucky as Joshua, having to settle for the more orthodox “Come and see…see Baby play ….see Bantay run” locally published children’s books. Actually, I first encountered Dr. Suess’ characters watching the 1971 CBS Cartoon TV Special adaptation of his equally popular “Cat in the Hat” story. I have loved Dr. Seuss books and characters ever since.

I came to know of Green Eggs and Ham much later as I was buying books at a Costco store in Humboldt County, California during my stay in the US as part of a Group Study Exchange (GSE) Team sponsored by the Rotary International.

Trivia # 4: Theodor Geisel also used the pen name Theo. LeSieg (Geisel spelled backwards)

Like Joshua, his two older brothers went though their young lives reading “Beginner Books” like Green Eggs and Ham. As for my youngest, I’m not going to be so surprised if Faith later makes it her first read book from cover to cover too.

What’s not to like in this very readable and visually appealing book? The appeal appears to be universal and cross cultural. From my own experience, it is even across generations.