Great Day for Up (Bright & Early Books(R)) [Hardcover]

Dr. Seuss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 12, 1974 | Age Level: 3 and up | Grade Level: P and up

The meanings of "up" are conveyed with merry verse and illustrations in a happy book that celebrates the joy of life.  

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Dr. Seuss ignites a child's imagination with his mischevious characters and zany verses.' The Express "Classic timeless appeal, presented in a new toddler friendly format" Junior "[Dr.Seuss] has!instilled a lifelong love of books, learning and reading [in children]" The Telegraph "You really can't go wrong with Dr.Seuss" BBC Parenting "The magic of Dr.Seuss, with hilarious rhymes, belongs on the family bookshelf" Sunday Times Magazine "It's hard to believe they've been going for a century, Dr. Seuss' magic is timeless" Father's Quarterly --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From the Inside Flap

Illus. in full color. The meanings of "up" are conveyed with merry verse and illustrations in a happy book that celebrates the joy of life.  

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Hardcover: 36 pages
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers; 1 edition (August 12, 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394829131
• ISBN-13: 978-0394829135
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 0.3 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,588 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"A person's a person, no matter how small," Theodor Seuss Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, would say. "Children want the same things we want. To laugh, to be challenged, to be entertained and delighted."

Brilliant, playful, and always respectful of children, Dr. Seuss charmed his way into the consciousness of four generations of youngsters and parents. In the process, he helped millions of kids learn to read.

Dr. Seuss was born Theodor Geisel in Springfield, Massachusetts, on March 2, 1904. After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1925, he went to Oxford University, intending to acquire a doctorate in literature. At Oxford, Geisel met Helen Palmer, whom he wed in 1927. Upon his return to America later that year, Geisel published cartoons and humorous articles for Judge, the leading humor magazine in America at that time. His cartoons also appeared in major magazines such as Life, Vanity Fair, and Liberty. Geisel gained national exposure when he won an advertising contract for an insecticide called Flit. He coined the phrase, "Quick, Henry, the Flit!" which became a popular expression.

Geisel published his first children's book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, in 1937, after 27 publishers rejected it.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1984, an Academy Award, three Emmy Awards, three Grammy Awards, and three Caldecott Honors, Geisel wrote and illustrated 44 books. While Theodor Geisel died on September 24, 1991, Dr. Seuss lives on, inspiring generations of children of all ages to explore the joys of reading.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Explores the Many Meanings of the Word, Up, February 24, 2001

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 110,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Great Day for Up (Bright & Early Books(R)) (Hardcover)

Children are normally confused by the multiplicity of meanings that a simple word can have when they start reading. Dr. Seuss has written a book here to can allow you to help your child understand that problem by looking at what "up" can mean in different contexts. The beautiful watercolor and inked outline illustrations by Quentin Blake provide great context for these meanings.

"Up! Up! The sun is getting up.

The sun gets up

so UP with you!"

Thus, this book begins. You can see that Dr. Seuss has already connected the idea of the sun rising above the horizon in the east with your rising from your bed. The book goes on to explore all the things that can rise. These includes ears on a rabbit, hands, whiskers, and eyes.

Once he goes into eyes, he then points out that many living creatures have eyes (including worms, frogs, butterflies, whales, and insects).

Then, Dr. Seuss returns to "up" and gives new meanings. These include taking something from a lower position to a higher one (like putting your feet up by walking on your hands), throwing things into the air (like balls), guiding things into the air (like kites), climbing (like going up a mountain -- Mt. Dill-ma-dilts in this case), and building mechanisms that can go up (like an elevator or a ferris wheel).

Then, he returns ingeniously to the original concept of arising from bed:

"Wake ever person,

pig and pup,

till EVERYONE

on Earth is up!"

Then comes the surprise ending that will keep you and your child chuckling for years.

At first, you may just think the ending is there simply for humor, but it actually extends your child's understanding of what saying "up" means in terms of cause and effect.

The book has all of the qualities I look for in an early reader. The language is simple. There is a limited vocabulary of short words. The illustrations tie in clearly to the words. The story is interesting, humorous, and upbeat. A child can learn to recognize the key word, up, in just a few readings.

After your child has mastered this wonderful story, I suggest that you encourage your child to use this book to identify synonyms for "up" which will extend the value of the book. For example, you can use "arise" or "rise" in many of the contexts. Then you can discuss how a speaker or a writer chooses which word version of a concept to use.

May all of your child's learning experiences be UP to the ones available in this book!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delighful!, October 8, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Great Day for Up! (Bright & Early Books(R)) (Library Binding)

An understated, masterful progression building steadily from the simple to the complex, finally culimating in a classic punch-line. The draw of this book is so great that even though my three children have, almost, outgrown it, while browsing for more "mature" titles, I just had to see if it was available since our copy is in such a tattered state that it will never survive the next generation of children to hopefully invade my home. Though almost fifteen years have past since I last read this book to a toddler, so lingering and delightful is the text that I find I can still recite the story verbatim; when requested by my cool teenagers! And as always, "Dr. Suess's illustrations only add to the pleasure. Having children is a wonderful excuse to enjoy such juvenile masterpieces!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dr. Seuss let's somebody else draw his book on "Up", June 21, 2004

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Great Day for Up (Bright & Early Books(R)) (Hardcover)

"Great Day for Up" is a unique Dr. Seuss book and you can tell this just by looking at the cover. That is because while the book is written by Dr. Seuss it features the jolly drawings of the English artist Quentin Blake. Until this point every time I have read a book written by Dr. Seuss it was also illustrated by Dr. Seuss and when somebody else did the drawings Dr. Seuss used the name Theo. LeSieg (which is "Geisel" backwards). So the fact that this is a real "Dr. Seuss" book drawn by somebody else is pretty special.

This Bright and Early Book provides rhymed text and illustrations introducing the many meanings of the word "up" as Seuss and Blake show beginning readers that this is a "Great day for up!" You get the point half way through the book but little kids should be able to hand on longer, especially when they are reading the book for themselves. Besides, by the end of "Great Day for Up" we get to the point where "EVERYONE on Earth is up!" (with one very important and rather ironic exception).

As with all of the Bright and Early Books for Beginning Beginners what you have here is a brief and funny story, where the words are few and easy, there is a catchy rhythm, and the pictures are happy and colorful clues to the text. These are designed for an even lower age group than the Bright and Early Books that followed "The Cat in the Hat," which was the "Harry Potter" of its day when it came to encouraging even pre-schoolers to discover the delights of reading for themselves. This is not one of the most interesting volumes in the series, but overall these books were a delight.