Module 12: The Boy on Fairfield Street: How Ted Geisel Grew Up to Become Dr. Seuss

• Book Summary:  This book starts off by describing Ted Geisel's (the future Dr. Seuss) love for books and animals as he grew up on 74 Fairfield Street in Springfield, Massachusetts.  Ted's father became superintendent of parts, which gave Ted a front row seat to the zoo and his father's stories about the zoo.  At night, Ted's mother (Henrietta Seuss Geisel) would read books from the library and put him and his sister to sleep with stories and nonsense verse.  Ted and his friends enjoyed roaming and playing in the neighborhood until Ted started to feel like he didn't fit in around Springfield.  Children at school teased him because of his German name.  It got so bad that children would chase and beat him up.  Not being skilled at shooting rifles like his parents, or being athletic, Ted found his passion for drawing.  He attempted to take an art class in high school, but was criticized and discourages by his art teacher who reprimanded him for breaking rules.  It was at Dartmouth College that Ted started using "Seuss" as his name in the school's newspaper.  After leaving Oxford University, Ted focused on his drawings and one day he was offered $25 for a cartoon by the Saturday Evening Post.  Ted received letters from other magazines wanting his drawings and soon he was off to New York city where his future began as a writer and illustrator.

• APA Reference of Book:

Krull, K. (2004).  The boy on Fairfield street: how Ted Geisel grew up to become Dr. Seuss.  New York, NY:  Random House.

• Impressions:  This was an enjoyable story, but I would have liked to read more about Ted Geisel's life after he moved to New York.  I know that Dr. Seuss became very successful, but I would have liked to read about his experiences of his early writings and drawings in New York.  I wanted to know more about his personal life after the age of twenty-two (like how long did it take to get his first book published or did he meet the love of his life while in New York?)  The author did a good job telling about Ted's life growing up, but as a reader I just wanted to know a little more about his early days of writing.

Professional Review:  Just in time for Dr. Seuss's one hundredth birthday comes this biographical tribute, an affectionate survey centered onTed Geisel's boyhood, plus a bit on his brush with higher education (neither Dartmouth College, where he was voted "Least Likely to Succeed," nor Oxford University engaged his full attention), concluding with the first months of his career. Four additional pages summarize the high points and pivotal moments of his entire life in somewhat more detail, but the real story here is of a boy who couldn't stop doodling, who "feasted on books and was wild about animals," and who "excelled at footing around." Krull does a good job of linking such early propensities with what turned up later, visually and thematically, in Geisel's books, Johnson and Fancher provide nostalgic full-page paintings that nicely recall illustrations of the period; a wealth of adroitly chosen vignettes from Seuss's own books (listed at the end) illuminate points made in the text (teenage Ted "knew his art broke the rules," observes Krull on a page sporting a gleefully determined race car-driving fish from One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish). Fans are sure to enjoy meeting theirrepressible man behind the ever-popular books.

Reference:

Long, J.R. (2004).  [Review of the book The boy on Fairfield street, by K. Krull].  Horn Book Magazine, 80(1).

• Library Uses:  This book can be read and displayed during Dr. Seuss Week (Birthday).  Older students could use this book to do research and a report about Dr. Seuss early life.