Customer Reviews

Your Favorite Seuss: A Baker's Dozen by the One and Only Dr. Seuss

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

My son loves Dr. Seuss (we usually checked them out from the library) so I was looking to buy some of his favorites for him. Then, I came across this - it includes 13 of Seuss's best including all my son's favorites (Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, The Sneetches, The Grinch, If I ran the Zoo ...) All for under $25! I went ahead and purchased it. Now, every night we read a couple of stories ("Green Eggs and Ham" is always one of them) and my son loves it! The only problem I found with it is that it is too heavy to be handled by young kids (under 5) alone. But it is sturdily bound and the pages are good quality. Not for trips though.

Too bulky to be comfortably read in bed. Also, the pages seem to be "doubled-up." That is, it seems they squeeze 2 pages of the normal edition onto 1 page, which does not flow as well or look as attractive. Of course, Seuss rules otherwise, but get the single edition books.

I read through some of this volume in Hastings and was glad I didn't purchase it online. There are several big problems. The first thing I noticed, just looking at the cover, is that it has a lot of overlap with two other one-volume collections: Six by Seuss and Hatful of Seuss. In particular, Yertle the Turtle, Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, Sneetches, Lorax, Sleep Book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Horton Hears a Who, are all available in those other two collections so if you have them already, you're only getting five new books. Looking inside, I saw that all the illustrations are small so they fit two on a page, and you can tell pretty easily that many of the pics have been cropped. Even with all that corner cutting, the book is still too heavy. So far I really don't think this was made with children in mind. Then I looked at the table of contents and saw that it said "The Sneetches" not "The Sneetches and Other Stories." Same with Yertle the Turtle. I flipped to the appropriate pages and sure enough, only the cover stories of those two books were there. Personally my favorite story in Sneetches was "What Was I Scared Of?" which wasn't even there! Meanwhile, Hatful of Seuss has the full Sneetches book, beginning to end, and Six by Seuss has the complete Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories. (I was actually going to give this two stars until I came to this part of the review.)

The (One) Positive: It contains a lot of Seuss lore and scratchwork between stories. You'll see things like old first draft drawings of Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss's "Epic Poem" (which is very short), and first appearances of characters he'd later incorporate in his books. Definitely worth a read, but do it in a bookstore or library, unless you're rich enough to spend an extra $20 just to get those bits and pieces.

Summary:

*If you get this book, you're going to get something that's heavy, cramped, and incomplete with a few things of historical interest in between.

*You could get 8 of these books in better one-volume collections, collections that present them the way they deserve to be presented. (Can you tell I like those other collections?)

*Ignore this review if you're rich. Bits of this thing are awesome.

It is great to have all these stories in one place. I almost forgot how fun they were to read, but it was something I wanted to have for Grandmothering...

The spine, which has been mentioned before is not the best for viewing the pictures, or comfortably holding it open while reading with a small one on your lap but it is manageable.

Dr. Seuss is timeless..and a must have in some form.

Since this is a dozen stories, it's expected this is going to be a big book. The facts and info on each story are quite interesting and really the major selling point for this book.

The major disappointment was the change in page layout. If you compare it to the single books, the pages are just laid out differently. In a couple stories, there's a focal point in the story that is buried in the crease because the of the page changes. If they hadn't dont that, this would be an awesome book. The facts and info they include with the book make it worth keeping on my bookshelf, but I read from different compilations.

Six by Seuss and A Hatful of Suess are two collections of multiple stories in a single book that preserve the original page layout. Both are available here on Amazon. Six by Seuss: A Treasury of Dr. Seuss Classics A Hatful of Seuss: Five Favorite Dr. Seuss Stories

its so sad because it has the most wonderful compilation of stories, but the book itself is large and heavy, making it very hard to read to a child who wants to be in your lap. If you can spare the bucks, buy the books independently or in smaller compilations. I figured out a way to do this for my very young daughter, but it was more from desperation than desire.

This compendium of the 12 best (IMHO) Dr. Seuss stories is a real treasure for those who grew up reading the individual storybooks. These are all the ones I spent hours reading and re-reading until the librarian threw me out at closing time. Each story includes the wonderful eye-filling original color and(or) black & white illustrations. One small criticism here: as the illustrations are laid out on a somewhat smaller page size and format than was used for the original books, some of the details of the illustrations are obscured by the page-join and gutter. The formidible size (and weight!) of this large-format tome, as well as the very informative Dr. Seuss trivia pages placed between each story, make this a book for adult fans who read to their chiildren (or themselves)... this monster is not really meant for small hands. Be sure to reserve a place on your coffee table or in the big-book section of your special book shelf. This one is WELL WORTH THE MONEY!

I bought this thinking I would save a few bucks since it is cheaper than buying the books individually. I have decided it was a mistake. First of all it is too heavy and bulky for reading bedtime stories, this coming from a construction worker.

Second and in my opinion worse, is that they have altered Seuss. It took me awhile figured out what it was but as soon as I looked at a story I already had read I could tell something just didn't look right. They took a layout Dr. Seuss undoubtedly put allot of time and thought into and just plain screwed it up. Many of the illustrations are shrunken to fit two or more onto one page, some are blown up to fit the larger format and worse still many (if not most) of them are cropped, cutting off things like the cute little houses Seuss would work into the back ground, (the ones my three year old joyfully points out every time).

The additional content is pretty slim, in between stories they have a page from a celebrity on what they think of Seuss and maybe a page or two of biography on Seuss, mostly just tiny pictures from other books Anyways this one sits on the shelf while all the other Seuss story books get constant use.

This is one of the best gifts we've purchased for our son. Instead of having the clutter of 13 books we have all of our favorite Dr. Seuss stories in one beautiful hard-back book. Sometimes you're worried when you buy a compilation that one of your favorites will be left out, but in this case we were NOT dissapointed. Every story that I remember as a kid is here.

For the price, it's definitely worth it -- A gift we'll value for many, many years.

After looking for a collection of Seuss books to read to a first grade classroom, I discovered this book. Now that I've got it and read it through, I like it a lot. I especially like the one page commentaries on Seuss and his works that precede each story. They really help to bring out Dr. Seuss as more than just an author. All in all, this is a great compilation of Seuss' best known books. Now if only they'd do the same with the Eric Carle books, I'd be set.