And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street

LiseWorks

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street | Dr. Seuss

November 14 #HumbleHarvest Berries @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Eggs Excellent 👌🏼 5mo

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esurient

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street | Dr. Seuss

https://apnews.com/article/dr-seuss-books-racist-images-d8ed18335c03319d72f44359...

I don't feel good about this.

esurient Additional discussion: https://library.nashville.org/blog/2019/08/tackling-racism-childrens-books-conve... 3y

Palimpsest The article that the child isn‘t distinguishing the images as racist is interesting, but even if children don‘t know, adults do and we can do better. 3y

Palimpsest https://www.instagram.com/p/CLkAoQbHmW4/?igshid=7tq5qecqvjcy 3y

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esurient @Palimpsest I'm so sorry! I don't have an account with Instagram, and maybe if I did I could see more information here, but 'Nel, 2014' is cited several times in that post and I'm not seeing the full citation listed -- just title information for Nel's 2017 book :

Was the Cat in the Hat Black?: The Hidden Racism of Children's Literature, and the Need for Diverse Books

(edited) 3y

esurient @Palimpsest Do you know if that was an essay? I'd very much like to read the whole thing, and I'm not seeing a likely work listed in the bibliographies on Nel's wiki and blog. 3y

Palimpsest @esurient Just to be clear, I am not normally for censorship. I think this case is it was the publisher‘s decision to stop printing. I know his books are beloved by many I just wonder if it‘s wise to continue to celebrate someone who was racist when there are so many other books out there that are positive. I wrote a paper on authors and authorship and sometimes it is hard to separate the person from their work. I didn‘t read this in full yet but 3y

Palimpsest There is an essay that I‘m not able to copy here called ‘The Cat is Out of the Bag: Orientalism, Anti-Blackness, and White Supremacy in Dr. Suess‘s Children‘s Books‘ by Katie Ishizuka. I haven‘t read it in full. 3y

Palimpsest The content I tried sharing from Instagram is clearly racist using the n word and is extremely offensive. I have read that he was for interment camps. https://reimaginingmigration.org/dr-seuss-political-cartoons/ 3y

esurient @palimpsest Thank you! I found the Ishizuka essay here: https://sophia.stkate.edu/rdyl/vol1/iss2/4

Looks like it has to be downloaded first, so I'll read that later on my computer. 3y

Palimpsest It seems later he changed his mind about some issues. If people want to read his books they still can it‘s more of the question for me is should we? My five-year-old son‘s teacher read The Cat and the Cat today during their zoom class and he loved it and laughed. I hadn‘t bought him any Suess books because I just have never liked the style personally. I‘d rather pick other authors that celebrate people of color then show dehumanizing pictures. 3y

Palimpsest @esurient great! Thanks for sharing and having this conversation. 3y

esurient @palimpsest And I was foolish and found reference to the Nel 2014 essay -- the book pulled its title from it, it it looks to have been reworked to be a chapter in the book. The essay is behind an access wall; I think it will be easier for me to get a copy of the book: https://philnel.com/2014/06/22/blackcat 3y

esurient @palimpsest I apologize in advance for this really long block of works, and I really appreciate you taking the time to help me learn here. I'm in a space where I'm absolutely in favor of diversity in literature, and especially in children's literature. I've read of librarians and other curators of children's books choosing not to stock the early classics, works by Seuss among them, for reasons of spacing allocations and shifting... (cont.) 3y

esurient cultural considerations; and I support those actions. But, I still want to access the books. These ones in particular, and other ones in general, and I am not feeling good that the Seuss Foundation, which controls the publishing rights, has decided to not permit further publication. In the case of ATTISIOMS, I think that's an especially huge deal -- it's a seminal book in Seuss' oeuvre, his very first children's work -- and even if... (cont.) 3y

esurient the foundation has decided it's no longer suitable for its originally intended use as a work for children, I think it's still an important work for historical and critical purposes. And it hurts to think that the Foundation is axing it completely. I would LOVE for them to authorize annotated versions speaking directly to the historical context and the natural change in acceptance as time marches on, geared for adult readers or... (cont.) 3y

esurient as teaching tools. ATTISIOMS is so particularly interesting for me on this topic because it's one of the few books that Seuss actually did update during his lifetime specifically in order to address concerns of racism and portrayal. The pictures in that Instagram post depict extremely racist caricatures and language, I agree -- I just don't think they can be held up as an absolute reason for Seuss' work to be discarded. (cont.) 3y

esurient I was having trouble with the image sources, but most of them seem taken from sources other than children's work, and a lot of Seuss' early 1920-40s work was hire-work done for advertisements or political cartoons or the war effort. It speaks to me more of an example of how prevalent and accepted racism was at the time -- the cultural norm. As you pointed out, Seuss' later developed a powerful voice speaking directly to addressing... (cont.) (edited) 3y

esurient the racism he saw in his day, and I really love celebrating that. BUT I am SO long-winded here. That you again so much for your time and encouraging me to seek out more information! ♥📚 3y

11 likes18 comments

Clwojick

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street | Dr. Seuss

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Dr Seuss never disappoints! This book is a lovely example of using your imagination, and I think that young children would enjoy coming up with other things that Marco could‘ve imagined seeing on Mulberry street as well.

#Bbrc #picturebook @LibrarianRyan

alisiakae Looks like we‘re both reading picture books today! 5y

TheBookStacker This was one of my favorite books as a child. 5y

LibrarianRyan Dr. Seuss's first book! 5y

Clwojick @4thhouseontheleft I wanted to go to the library first thing this morning, but I forgot I had to wait around for a package to be delivered 😫 I was so excited to get out there and beat the heat. In the meantime I‘m studying and reading digital picture books from Libby. I think I‘m going to try to get in atleast 100 picture books for this challenge, because how can you choose just 1 per letter. There‘s so many adorable ones out there 😍 5y

alisiakae 😂😂 Same! I can not choose just one for most letters (as might be obvious from my posts the last 2 days). 😂 I have A-I checked out from the library, I need to start some hold requests for J-Z! (edited) 5y

54 likes5 comments

BrittanyLewis

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street | Dr. Seuss

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“ for I had a story that no one could beat! And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street!”

BrittanyLewis

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street | Dr. Seuss

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The illustrations in this book use lots of primary color

BrittanyLewis

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street | Dr. Seuss

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This book took place on Mulberry Street and at this child‘s home. It was a lovely story about a kids imagination and what he saw on his way home. He took an ordinary tale and made it into something extraordinary. But in the end he told the truth.

Tonton

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (Bound for Schools & Libraries) | Dr Seuss

This book was almost thrown away! Here‘s the story of how it was saved:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jan/30/thank-you-letter-to-man-who-saved-...

DivineDiana What a story! 😲 5y

27 likes1 comment

RakowEli

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street | Dr. Seuss

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Read

Gina

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street | Dr. Seuss

It's good to know people in the right places. ♡♡♡

6 likes

MKbookworm

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street | Dr. Seuss

"Nothing," I said, growing red as a beet, "but a plain horse and wagon on Mulberry Street." A well read copy of my favorite Dr. Seuss. #worldbookday #happybirthdaydrseuss

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AlanaA

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street | Dr. Seuss

While reading this fantasy by Dr. Seuss I was thinking how useful this book would be while teaching students how to write their own fiction pieces. Here is a link to learn a little more about the art of storytelling: http://www.mensaforkids.org/teach/lesson-plans/the-art-of-storytelling/ #UCFLAE3414sp17

DrSpalding What a wonderful link to share! I will model storytelling tomorrow! 7y

DrSpalding I am also proud of you for making the purchase. These will be great additions to your classroom library. 7y

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Peddler410

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (Bound for Schools & Libraries) | Dr Seuss

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One of our favorite Dr. Seuss! My daughter shares the little boys imagination.

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