BOOK PICKS.

Byline: The Register-Guard

On Beyond Zebra

By Dr. Seuss 

1955

Ages 4 and up

Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904. For many of us, Dr. Seuss has been a friend since the publication of "The Cat in the Hat," in 1957. What I didn't know was that his wild books revitalized the teaching of reading at a critical moment.

Rudolf Flesch's "Why Johnny Can't Read" shocked Americans into a national discussion in the 1950s. Naturally enthusiastic children were bored stiff by the "Dick and Jane" stories that were supposed to teach them to read. Novelist John Hersey asked in a 1954 Life magazine article why someone like Dr. Seuss didn't create a new style of school primer.

It took the perfectionist Seuss a year to put together a book he was happy with, limited to a list of words that educators had decided were appropriate for that age. "The Cat in the Hat" was such an explosive success that Helen and Bennett Cerf, with Seuss, created a new branch of Random House called Beginner Books. What Seuss called his "logical insanity" made reading exciting and joyful.

One of my favorite books by Seuss is the overlooked "On Beyond Zebra," from 1955. It is typical Seuss (an oxymoron if ever there was one) in its combination of wit, rhythm and rebellion. The nameless narrator is something of a beatnik, with his slouchy turtleneck shirt, fringy hair and complete self-confidence. Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell is his "very young friend who is learning to spell." The story begins with Conrad, hair parted down the middle and tie and sweater just so, announcing that he has the alphabet down pat. Watch out! Tidiness makes you a perfect candidate for a Seussian journey into the imagination.

Our guys, along with a propeller-eared dog, travel under the sea, to the tops of mountains and into outer space. Conrad's eyes are wide and his mouth agape as he meets creatures so strange that new letters are needed just to spell their names. There's the gigantic Yuzz-a-ma-Tuzz, the tiny Glikker and the tongue-twisting Nutches in Nitches. Who could resist trying to accommodate the Zatz-it, "Whose nose is so high that `most nobody pats it"?

Seuss celebrates a child's unrestricted mind, while never "talking down." He also gets his licks in on psychological and social issues. The Itch-a-pods run endlessly, "too scared to roost where-so-ever they are." And his drawing of Miss Fuddle-dee-Duddle is a perfect commentary on inequality: This bird has six attendants to carry her elaborate tail, and in contrast to her splendor, the helpers are gray, bare and miserable.

If you look closely, near the end of "Zebra," at a row of sprawling, catlike creatures, you might find one with a familiar smirk. No hat just yet, but.... Thank you, Dr. Seuss, and Happy Birthday.

- Jackie Melvin, book editor