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Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories

This volume gives you a three-for-one bonanze of exceptional Dr. Seuss tales, which means it just may be the single hardback book you should slip into your carry-on for a plane flight or otherwise keep easily at hand. The story of King Yertle offers a cleverly rhymed morality tale about standing up to selfish, self-appointed dictators. Your little one's run-ins with dictators will hopefully be limited to the playground type, but trust us, those are plenty tyrannical. (Geisel himself was making a broader allusion, as Yertle's character is derived from political cartoons he made during WWII.) But regardless of setting, the answer's the same: "I know up on top you are seeing great sights, but down on the bottom we, too, should have rights!" A veritable rallying cry for the little ones, we think. The next two tales take on vanity and bragging, to the same wonderful effect, and in between all the learning about the evils of self-aggrandizement, the fact is that these stories are a hoot! (Our other all-time favorites in the line of plot-driven stories from the Seuss library (as opposed to the stand-alone-page reading primers or the extended wordplay riffs) include The Sneetches, The Butter Battle Book (a bestseller for adults for months after publication), Bartholomew and the Oobleck and (maybe our absolute favorite of all, if we were (ick) forced to name just one) Horton Hatches an Egg. They are all exquisitely wonderful tales.)

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