Book Review: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street by Dr. Seuss

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Fun, imaginative book

Cons: Does feel a little repetitive

The Bottom Line:

Trip home with Marco

Just imagine what he sees

Fun Dr. Seuss book

That’s Quite an Imagination You’ve Got There

I’ll admit, And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street wasn’t one of my regular Dr. Seuss books from when I was a kid.  I feel like I had read it a couple of times over the years, but I wasn’t super familiar with it.  When I saw a cheap copy at my local used bookstore recently, I snagged it and decided to review it for Banned Books Week.

The story is told from the point of view of Marco, a young boy whose father is always encouraging him to observe the world around him to see what he can see.  However, his trip home from school on Mulberry Street is rather boring.  All he sees is a horse pulling a broken-down wagon.  But what if, instead, he said he saw a new cart…drawn by a zebra.  No, that’s not special enough.  Where will Marco’s wild story stop?

While this isn’t top tier Dr. Seuss, it is still quite fun.  With each page, Marco’s story gets wilder and wilder.  It’s fun to turn the page to see what he will say next.  But don’t worry.  The book doesn’t encourage lying.  It’s all Marco’s thoughts to himself about what he could say.

And yes, the book is told is classic Dr. Seuss rhyme.  That means, he has to rhyme lots of things with street and get the right rhythm for Mulberry in there as well.  Is it a surprise to any of his many fans that he does?  On the other hand, it does get a little repetitive.

The story is accompanied by classic Dr. Seuss illustrations.  They are all caricatures to be sure, but they are fun and help bring the wild imagination to life.  I found it fun that the elephant looks an awful lot like Horton.

This is one of the six books that was taken out of print because of some ethnic stereotypes.  And yes, I will say it again, if a book is no longer in print, that is much closer to being banned than a book not being in a library but still easily available for purchase.  And that’s why I am choosing to highlight the book during Banned Books Week.  Anyway, the offending page includes a young Chinese boy eating rice with chopsticks.  I’m a little surprised that no one seemed to object to the Rajah a few pages earlier.  Or maybe I just didn’t hear about it.  Both of these characters are mentioned in the narration as well as appearing in the illustrations.  Frankly, I don’t feel that either are overly stereotypical in their illustrations.  They are caricatures, but so are the rest of the characters on the page.  They are perfectly in keeping with the rest of the illustrations, and the lines about them aren’t overly stereotypical either.

This is classified as an easy reader.  I think some of the words will be a little tougher for young readers, but it doesn’t feature any of Dr. Seuss’s made-up words.  Those can be tricky even for adult readers.  This will be a bit of a challenge, so once your readers are ready for that, it’s a good one to have.

Maybe, if I had read this book more as a child, I would have nostalgia filled love for this story.  Even reading it now, I can see the charm and how the building craziness would appeal to children.  If you can track down a copy of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, you and your child will enjoy it.