Customer Reviews

The Cat in the Hat and Other Dr. Seuss Favorites

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a homeschooling Mom of 2 small girls, we do A LOT of reading together. What a treat to have someone else do the reading for me every once in a while! Kelsey Grammer, John Lithgow, Walter Matthau, Ted Danson, Billy Crystal and other famous voices certainly do an OUTSTANDING job! The stories are unabridged, which makes it easy to follow along with your own Dr Seuss library. Between the talented author and the unquestionably talented actors, you just can't go wrong...what a great gift to any child or Dr. Seuss fan of any age! My daughters love this CD, and are always asking for one more story or the other disc. SO...we purchased the Green Eggs and Ham CD set today, and are very eager to see how it compares to this fun compilation!

As others have said, these are great books, and my toddler loves them. I give the product a 3 star review for two reasons though:

1. There are times when the background music is too loud (as another reviewer said). With an audiobook, especially in the car, it is critically important to have the voice dominant enough to be heard clearly throughout, and that is occasionally not true here.

2. The books aren't separated or clearly delineated. If you bought the CD, you'd get each book as a separate track -- as things should be -- allowing you to find the start of a book and skip between books quickly. If you buy the Audible version, however, you're going to have to figure out that the Grinch begins at 25 minutes, 14 seconds and ends at 37 minutes, 28 seconds, etc. And you'll have to cope with the fact that there's absolutely no buffer between the books. I have just figured all these out and am using audio software to split the file up, but there's no reason I should have to do this. I can't edit the product for the rest of you, but here are the times:

The Cat in the Hat - 0:00:33 - 0:08:34
Horton Hears a Who - 0:08:35 - 0:25:13
The Grinch... - 0:25:14 - 0:37:28
Did I Ever Tell You... - 0:37:29 - 0:45:59
The Lorax - 0:46:00 - 1:01:10
Yertle... - 1:01:11 - 1:23:39
Thidwick... - 1:23:40 - 1:35:00
Horton Catches the Egg - 1:35:01 - 1:46:06
The Cat in the Hat Comes Back - 1:46:07 - 1:55:11

In sum, a great product marred a bit by technical issues. Buy the CD & rip it is the easiest way to cope, but if you buy this, I hope the above saves you some frustration.

My son listens to these over and over with or without the book. He enjoys the narrators and has almost memorized the books.

My daughter loves Dr. Seuss so I immediately ordered this CD and the Green Eggs & Ham version as well. It's a great idea, but the background music is too loud at various points so it's hard to understand the words while the CD plays. That is our only complaint. I was able to decipher what the reader was saying, but my four-year-old had trouble and lost patience with it after a few minutes. I'm hoping she'll grow to appreciate it as time goes on.

The story telling of these books is fantastic. It captured the attention of my three year old, not an easy task. I was a little disappointed the CD's didn't come with the books. Maybe it should have been stated more clearly...

Strengths: The 1st track has Kelsey Grammar narrating Cat in the Hat. Kelsey does and EXCELLENT job! So your expectations are high for the CD.

Weaknesses: After track #1, it is downhill from there. The rest of the tracks are boring.

My kids (who are 6 and under) love listening to books on audio CD. However, my kids started tuning out the CD after track #2. I have tried playing during quiet time and in the car. I found the CD unbearable to listen to especially in the car because it is boring and makes mom sleepy. Save your money.

Suggestion: If you can buy the MP3 of Cat in the Hat with Kelsey Grammar or purchase the the audio CD for "Green Eggs and Ham". The Green Eggs CD is excellent and you stay awake.

My granddaughters were not sure they were going to like this CD. They wanted to listen to it during daylight first. After hearing it with other people around, they decided they liked it and would listen to it at night when they were in bed. It took a bit of convincing, however.

The background music gets a bit loud at times. We got used to it eventually. Otherwise the stories are great and so are the performances. My 8y.o. son can't get enough. What's great, we could follow up with the books. I would highly recommend it for elementary school children.

Kids like to listen to this a lot, we down loaded it to the computer and they love it.

Really Great Stories! My kids loved them. Gertrude McFuzz is fabulous and John Lithgow was superb as the reader. In fact all of the cast were excellent in their roles.

The Big Brag, Thidwick, How Lucky You Are are easily perpetual favorites. We played these over and over.

A not to be missed collection for young listeners.... ages 1 to 100!