“Big A, little a, what begins with A? Aunt Annie’s alligator (短吻鳄). A..a..A” Do you know these words? They are from a book called Dr. Seuss’s ABC.

Who is Dr. Seuss? His real name is Theodor Seuss Geisel. He is an American children’s writer. When Theodor goes to college (大学), he writes for a magazine. He writes funny things. His friends all think he is funny.

A few years later, he begins to write books for children. He is very good at art. He draws funny pictures for his books. One book is The Cat in the Hat. Another one is Hop on Pop. Dr. Seuss’s books are different from other books. He writes more than 60 books in his life.

Books by Dr. Seuss are fun to read. Some of them show make-believe (虚构的) animals like the Zizzer Zazzer Zuzz. Young children laugh (笑) when their parents and teachers read these books to them. Older children like reading them alone (独自).

What is your favorite Dr. Seuss’s book?

Winning kids’ hearts

Have you ever read the fairy-tale (童话故事) book, Dopey and Grumpy (《没头脑和不高 兴》)? 【小题1】 One often misses this and that, and the other has a bad temper (脾气). They make many silly mistakes (愚蠢的错误) and finally learn a lesson.

【小题2】 Because he wanted to win children’s hearts. At first, Ren translated (翻译) foreign children’s books. However, he still wanted to write his own stories. “Sometimes, when I translated, I was not very satisfied (满足) with the works. I thought if I write, I would write it in another way to win children’s hearts,” Ren wrote in an article.

With this idea, he began to write down things that happened in life. 【小题3】 “I myself was a classic (典型的) ‘Dopey’, often feeling muddle-headed (糊里糊涂的), while my kid is ‘Grumpy’ when I ask him to do something,” said Ren. Then he thought, why not let them keep their shortcomings (缺点) and show them as they are? “They might learn a hard lesson in doing so,” Ren said.

With his good idea, the writing was quick. 【小题4】 Though Ren was, in his words, dopey, he was not grumpy in life. He was happy! Ren said he loved to work on children’s literature (文学). 【小题5】