After Hours at the Soup -- May 6th -- Celebrating Dr. Suess!

Mark you calendars for After Hours at the Soup -- Wednesday, May 6th from 6-9!

We'll be celebrating Dr. Suess -- study up for a fun and tricky trivia competition.

Enjoy refreshments, including beer & wine for the grown-ups.

Costumes encouraged! Contests to win Dr. Suess books!

The event coincides with First Wednesday, the Wallingford Art Walk, which kicks off in May.

So, who was Dr. Suess?

He was born Theodor Seuss Geisel in 1904 and grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was the son of a brewmaster, who managed to prosper even through Prohibition. An early childhood memory is of his mother chanting rhymes, rather than standard lullabies, to soothe him to sleep. "Ted" as he was known by family and friends, attended Dartmouth College and served as editor-in-chief of the humor magazine until he got demoted after he and his friends were caught throwing a drinking party, against school policy as well as Prohibition! He continued as a contributing writer, and this was where he first signed his work Seuss.
After travelling through Europe, he married his first wife, Helen Palmer, who became a children's book author and editor (several of her books were Dr. Seuss book club selections).


He worked in advertising for 15 years and during World War II, too old for the draft, worked with Frank Capra's Signal Corps in the U.S. Army making training films and learning the art of animation. Although now perhaps best known for his tongue-twisting and nonsensical rhymes, he got his first big break into children's books with illustrations for a humorous series published by Which isn't surprising when you consider that three of his books (McElligot's Pool, Bartholomew and the Oobleck, and If I Ran the Zoo) won Caldecott Honors. That was a long way off, however -- his first book, And to Think That I Saw it On Mulberry Street, was rejected 27 times before finally being published.

Dr. Seuss passed away on September 24, 1991. By then, he had published 44 children's books, and his work had been translated into 15 different languages.

Dr. Seuss Book List -- How many of these books have you read?

List includes books written under Dr. Seuss & Theo Le Seig. Illustrators are not listed, and are different for each book.

__ And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937)
__ The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1938)
__ The King's Stilts (1939)
__ The Seven Lady Godivas (1940)
__ Horton Hatches the Egg (1940)
__ McElligot's Pool (Caldecott Honor Book, 1947)
__ Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose (1948)

__ Bartholomew and the Oobleck (Caldecott Honor Book, 1949)
__ If I Ran the Zoo (Caldecott Honor Book, 1950)

__ Scrambled Eggs Super! (1953)
__ Horton Hears a Who! (1954)
__ On Beyond Zebra! (1955)

__ If I Ran the Circus (1956)
__ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957
__ The Cat in the Hat (1957)

__ The Cat in the Hat Comes Back (1958)

__ Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories (1958)

__ Happy Birthday to You! (1959)
__ Green Eggs and Ham (1960)

__ Ten Apples Up on Top! ( 1961)
__ One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (1960)

__ The Sneetches and Other Stories (1961)

__ Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book (1962)

__ Dr. Seuss's ABC (1963)
__ Hop on Pop (1963)

__ Fox in Socks (1965)
__ I Wish That I Had Duck Feet (1965)

__ I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew (1965)
__ Come Over to My House (1966)
__ The Cat in the Hat Song Book (1967)

__ The Foot Book (1968)
__ The Eye Book (1968)
__ I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! and Other Stories (1969)
__ My Book about ME (Illustrated by Roy McKie, 1970)
__ I Can Draw It Myself (1970)
__ Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?: Dr. Seuss's Book of
__ Wonderful Noises! (1970)
__ The Lorax (1971)
__ I Can Write (1971)

__ Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now! (1972)

__ In a People House (1972)
__ Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? (1973)
__ The Shape of Me and Other Stuff (1973)

__ There's a Wocket in My Pocket! (1974)
__ The Many Mice of Mr. Brice (1974)
__ Wacky Wednesday (1974)
__ Great Day for Up! (Illustrated by Quentin Blake, 1974)
__ Oh, the Thinks You Can Think! (1975)
__ Because a Little Bug Went Kachoo (1975)
__ Would You Rather Be a Bullfrog? (1975)
__ The Cat's Quizzer (1976)
__ Hooper Humperdink...? Not Him!(1976)
__ Please Try to Remember the First of Octember! (1976)
__ I Can Read with My Eyes Shut! (1978)
__ Oh Say Can You Say? (1979)
__ Maybe You Should Fly a Jet! Maybe You Should Be a Vet!(1981)
__ Hunches in Bunches (1982)

__ The Butter Battle Book (1984)
__ You're Only Old Once! : A Book for Obsolete Childre(1986)
__ I Am NOT Going to Get Up Today! (1987)
__ The Tooth Book (1989)

__ Oh, the Places You'll Go! (1990)

__ Daisy-Head Mayzie (Posthumous, 1995)

__ My Many colored Days (Posthumous, 1996)

__ Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! (Posthumous, from notes, with Jack Prelutsky & Lane Smith, 1998)
__ Gerald McBoing-Boing (Posthumous, based on story & film, 2000)

Trade in Your Books for Store Credit!

It's Spring Cleaning time again! If you have any children's books you've sort of outgrown, bring them in for a trade! We'll give you credit for 50% of what we would sell the book for. So, if you have a book we'd sell for $5, your store credit would be $2.50. Please bring the books in on a Saturday -- no appointment necessary. If you need to make other arrangements please call Janet at 547-4555.

Remember: we won't sell former library books or books that have any tears, exccessive staining, or scribble marks (a written name or gift inscription is usually okay....) We only take children's books, no grown up books, please. E-mail or call if you have any questions!

Sing, Sing a Song...

One of my favorite classes at school was music. Everyone could participate. I don't remember there being any particular hierarchy who was smarter than whom, which group got finished first, and all that -- we just sang. Sometimes we played instruments. I was quite the triangle afficianado, a career I sort of regret not pursuing.

In general, I love our vintage book collection. But in particular, I love the music books that were used as textbooks in grammar schools. I haven't yet found the one they used at my school -- back in that small quaint town in New Jersey, so many years ago I've lost count -- but flipping through the ones I have found still brings back memories of music class. From holiday celebrations; traditional songs; songs in French (very simple, mind you); to learning essentials such as how to tell time, the importance of sharing, manners, and other life lessons, there seemed to be a song for every occasion.

Thank you, Wizard of Oz Fans!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by for After Hours at the Soup, Celebrating the Wizard of Oz series. And congratulations to the winners of the raffle -- Anna; and to the guessing game -- Brian; and to everyone who won a prize in the trivia contest! We had a lively game. There were wonderful costumes -- so many Dorothys!

Be sure to join us on May 6th from 6 - 9, for our After Hours at the Soup, Celebrating Dr. Seuss!