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)