Product Description

To accompany the release of the live action movie of The Cat in the Hat, starring Mike Myers, HarperCollins are proud to present Dr. Seuss's original tale of feline anarchy, pink snow and all-round mayhem! When the Cat in the Hat comes back, Sally and her brother know it's going to mean trouble. And guess what? They're right! The Cat in the Hat is one of the most popular characters in children's fiction, and this book is ideal for budding readers to tackle on their own.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8099 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 64 pages

Review
'Dr. Seuss ignites a child's imagination with his mischevious characters and zany verse.' The Express

About the Author
Theodor Seuss Geisel -- better known to millions of his fans as Dr. Seuss -- was born the son of a park superintendant in Springfield, Massachussets, i n1904. After studying at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, and later at Oxford University in England, he became a magazine humorist and cartoonist, and an advertising man. He soon turned his many talents to writing children's books, and his first book -- 'And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street' -- was published in 1937. His greatest claim to fame was the one and only 'The Cat in the Hat', published in 1957, the first of a successful range of early learning books known as Beginner Books.

Customer Reviews

Learning from Experience
Researchers constantly find that reading to children is valuable in a variety of ways, not least of which are instilling a love of reading and improved reading skills. With better parent-child bonding from reading, your child will also be more emotionally secure and able to relate better to others. Intellectual performance will expand as well. Spending time together watching television fails as a substitute.

To help other parents apply this advice, as a parent of four I consulted an expert, our youngest child, and asked her to share with me her favorite books that were read to her as a young child. The Cat in the Hat Comes Back was one of her picks.

The theme of this story builds from The Cat in the Hat. In that story, two children are home alone when the cat in the hat visits, makes a horrible mess, and manages to clean it all up just as mother returns. Although the family fish warned them about the cat, the children were gullible.

In this story, the children are not gullible, but the cat takes advantage of them anyway. The children are home alone shoveling deep snow while their mother is away in town for the day. The cat in the hat goes into the house before they can stop him, and eats cake in the bath tub while bathing. They told him to get out and pulled the plug. Unfortunately, that left a long pink cat ring. A contrite, but overconfident, cat in the hat says he'll take care of everything. But he just moves the pink mess from one valuable object to another, starting with mother's white dress. He is a very foolish cat!

Soon, he needs help. In his hat are 26 little cats from A to Z who are specialists at cleaning up the messes he just made. Eventually, the outside snow is so covered in pink spots so that the whole yard is one big spot! Then he calls on Z who is too small to see, and Z finishes the job. Everything is back in order.

This beginning reader is also designed to help with the alphabet. Long before the book can be read by your child, the alphabet sequence will be helpful. The book is moe difficult to read than The Cat in the Hat, so your child will probably not attempt it unless and until that book is mastered.

There are many subtle messages here that any parent can endorse. One, you have to be careful about letting people in your house. Although the cat in the hat is not sinister, children need to understand that lesson in a nonfrightening way. Two, if you know someone is a troublemaker, you'd better keep them away from mischief. Children are very accepting of mischievous children who set bad examples. This gives you a chance to praise the good behavior of the children while questioning the appropriateness of the cat's behavior. What else could the children have done? They will have this issue with friends in years to come. Three, the smallest cat is the most powerful. That's a rare voice in favor of examining people and animals for their worth in effectiveness rather than their size. Diminutive children will like this part. Four, by being persistent in dealing with the cat, everything turns out all right. Children need to learn that persistence can overcome adversity. Five, thinking ahead can save a lot of problems. If the children had given the cat some paper towels in the beginning or knew how to wash out a bath tub themselves, the complications would have been minor. As you read the story together, you can emphasize these lessons to help your child.

When you are both done with the book, you should discuss how problems can be prevented by anticipation. This is a good way to help your child's problem-solving ability mature.

Enjoy!

Same Cat, Same Hat, who would ever have guessed that!
Here we are, once again
The silly cat, the silly grin
The same old cat, the same old hat
Who has the same routine down pat

It came upon a snowy day
The cat in hat decides to pay
A visit once again to those
Friends he had earlier chose

And oops! It's bath time for the kitty
But he leaves the tub so gritty
He must go and look for help to clean
Such a mess should not be seen

That silly cat! That gosh-darned hat!
I still don't know what's up with that!
Where did he come from, once again
Surely fun like this is a sin!

The mischief truly knows no bounds
When cats like this are hang-arounds
And I should know, I've got some now
But they never reach my hats, somehow

But surely we would welcome more
Of the fun we knew before
And Dr. Seuss, he did provide us
With more tails, er, tails hilarious

Huzzah that the cat, he did come back
and with the hat, not on the rack
but on his head, inside devising
situations not compromising

But always ending up in spirit
most jolly, happy, and we're near it
when we read the silly rhymes
remembering them in silly times

We'll never forget the cat's appearance
(from a book not usually on clearance)
And thus he comes again to renew
His friendship with me, and also with you.

After the success of 'The Cat in the Hat', who wouldn't want a sequel? The same Cat and the same children are matched again in this story, for new mischief and new adventures. Who would guess that such clever rhymes and language inventions could be done with such a limited vocabulary? It is the very simplicity and low number of vocabulary words that makes this and other Dr. Seuss books such wonderful learning aids for children. The whimsical versification makes them a delight for adults, too.

Children who are raised on Dr. Seuss never forget him. And the Cat in the Hat is central to the Dr. Seuss canon; it is surprising that this sequel is not better known.

Pros
The cat again, the hat again
Cons

No, I cannot find a one, not one!

Brilliant!

Opening the Doorway for a Child's Imagination
The Cat in the Hat was one my daughters favourite books.I have always thought of this book as a metaphor for the sort of "make believe" thinking that children like to do and are good at. The setting is a cold rainy day, and the children's mother isn't home. I have always transformed that into they are playing in their room while their mother is busy elsewhere in the house. Suddenly, a mysterious cat arrives who can do remarkable jugging (until he drops everything) and brings in a fun box (with two little creatures who fly kites). A parental voice, however, is always present in the form of the children's fish who constantly warns them to get rid of the cat in the hat. Suddenly, the mother is spotted about to reenter the house. The children are panic-stricken. The house is a mess! What to do? They are obviously about to be really in for it. I can feel the adrenaline rushing even now as I remember similar situations with friends as a child. But then, the cat in the hat returns with a miraculous device which cleans everything up! And then he is gone, just as their mother steps in. She asks, "Did you have any fun? Tell me. What did you do?" The two children don't know what to say. They ask you what you would do if your mother asked you. The ending is wonderful because it sets up a wonderful opportunity to talk about the story. Would the child let in the cat in the hat? Would the child ask the cat in the hat to leave and when? Was the fish correct in warning the children? What are the other reasons not to let strangers in? Why should you tell your mother if things go awry, or not? In the course of the discussion, fears that the story probably raises can be dealt with in a constructive way that reduces fear in the future and improves communication in the family. Most children have these kinds of fears, but aren't usually willing to bring them up. So the book gives you the excuse to work on improving their security. This is one of the more difficult Dr. Seuss books for beginning readers, so you'll be reading this one to your child for a while. The appeal to the child is very much in the idea of playing unrestrained in the house. Almost no child is allowed to do that, and the consequences are pretty funny for the child if they are happening to someone else. If you want to see the earliest versions of the cat in the hat character, be sure to see Dr. Seuss Goes to War which documents his work as a political cartoonist in World War II. Then, encourage your child to use the book to come up with her or his own ideas about fun things to do as make-believe on a rainy day. Can they imagine a more fun make-believe visitor than the cat in the hat? What would the visitor do? If you ask these questions, you will extend your child's imagination now and for a lifetime. Enjoy for the rest of your life!