“Do you like green eggs and ham?” asks Sam-I-am in this Beginner Book by Dr. Seuss. In a house or with a mouse? In a boat or with a goat? On a train or in a tree? Sam keeps asking persistently. With unmistakable characters and signature rhymes, Dr. Seuss’s beloved favorite has cemented its place as a children’s classic. In this most famous of cumulative tales, the list of places to enjoy green eggs and ham, and friends to enjoy them with, gets longer and longer. Follow Sam-I-am as he insists that this unusual treat is indeed a delectable snack to be savored everywhere and in every way.
Originally created by Dr. Seuss, Beginner Books encourage children to read all by themselves, with simple words and illustrations that give clues to their meaning.
Theodor Seuss Geisel was born 2 March 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He graduated Dartmouth College in 1925, and proceeded on to Oxford University with the intent of acquiring a doctorate in literature. At Oxford he met Helen Palmer, who he wed in 1927. He returned from Europe in 1927, and began working for a magazine called Judge, the leading humor magazine in America at the time, submitting both cartoons and humorous articles for them. Additionally, he was submitting cartoons to Life, Vanity Fair and Liberty. In some of his works, he'd made reference to an insecticide called Flit. These references gained notice, and led to a contract to draw comic ads for Flit. This association lasted 17 years, gained him national exposure, and coined the catchphrase "Quick, Henry, the Flit!"
In 1936 on the way to a vacation in Europe, listening to the rhythm of the ship's engines, he came up with And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, which was then promptly rejected by the first 43 publishers he showed it to. Eventually in 1937 a friend published the book for him, and it went on to at least moderate success.
During World War II, Geisel joined the army and was sent to Hollywood. Captain Geisel would write for Frank Capra's Signal Corps Unit (for which he won the Legion of Merit) and do documentaries (he won Oscar's for Hitler Lives and Design for Death). He also created a cartoon called Gerald McBoing-Boing which also won him an Oscar.
In May of 1954, Life published a report concerning illiteracy among school children. The report said, among other things, that children were having trouble to read because their books were boring. This inspired Geisel's publisher, and prompted him to send Geisel a list of 400 words he felt were important, asked him to cut the list to 250 words (the publishers idea of how many words at one time a first grader could absorb), and write a book. Nine months later, Geisel, using 220 of the words given to him published The Cat in the Hat, which went on to instant success.
In 1960 Bennett Cerf bet Geisel $50 that he couldn't write an entire book using only fifty words. The result was Green Eggs and Ham. Cerf never paid the $50 from the bet.
Helen Palmer Geisel died in 1967. Theodor Geisel married Audrey Stone Diamond in 1968. Theodor Seuss Geisel died 24 September 1991.
There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who like green eggs and ham, and those who don't.
Well, three. Those who like green eggs and ham. Those who don't. And those who like the green eggs but not the ham. It's just ham, not green ham. We should get that straight. Oh, correction, it's green ham too.
Anyhow four kinds of people. The haters, the likers, the green egg but not green hammers, and the green hammers but not green eggs.
Actually I guess there are the people who would eat them with a fox, but not in a box. And some who would eat them with a fox, in a box, on a train, but not with a goat.
Ok. So there are lots of kinds of people in the world. Dr Seuss invents diversity. Kudos.
Really the book is about the key existential question in the 20th and 21st centuries. Green food, yes or no, and under what conditions. It's a metaphor for where a man ... or woman ... or thing called Sam ... draws the line.
Where people, where will you draw that line?
Green eggs and (green) ham is a cipher for our age, an antithesis to the jejune, a whirlwind of growing complexity into which we pour our souls and come face to face with the naked question - will we try them? Try them and we may, I say.
Seuss offers us a black and white and green question - do we like them? But this devolves into shades of grey (green), we're crippled with choice, seduced by the rhythm, shocked by the goat.
In the end, my friends, there are only two kinds of people. Those who push the 'like' button on my review of Green Eggs and Ham, and those who suck.
This is a very complex story of two gentlemen from two very different walks of life. Introvert, extrovert... good, evil... Democrat, Republican... you get the idea. It also parallels the generational gap between those set in their ways, and those willing to venture out and explore perhaps a different approach to life. However you dissect it, there is an initial, almost uncomfortable clash between the two main characters in this saga. None the less, you cannot help but continue to turn the pages as you delve into this story, no matter how uncomfortable it may seem at the time. You find yourself relating to either of the characters, and perhaps even a little of both. The main crux of the story relates one man, Sam I Am, trying to please the elderly statesman into venturing into unknown worlds. The elderly character, who is nameless, seems old and set in his ways, seeming to fall back onto years of wisdom, and contradictally, foolishness, as he puts up walls between himself and Sam. Sam is relentless in his persuit to please the elder. Houses, foxes, goats, tunnels, trains, boats, mice. The story finally climaxes as the two characters have experienced a horrendous shipwreck, and as they are fighting for their lives together in the angry sea, the culmination of Sam's efforts converge into one page... a page without a word being spoken. The elder gentleman finally steps outside of his comfort zone, and realizes that he has wasted much energy fighting the personal demons that dwelled inside him. Rescued and back on shore, Sam and the gentleman forge a relationship that is much stronger than it could have ever been, had neither character played the "give and take" game that solidifies our own relationships we experience in our own lives. We see a little (or a lot) of each one of us in both characters, and I believe that the author is trying to deliver a message for generations to come about the importance of harmony in relationships.
I highly recommend this book. You can easily finish it in a weekend. Once you start, it will be hard to put down.
This is a children's book written by Dr. Seuss (Seuss, pseudonym of Theodor Seuss Geisel.)
This book tells us the story of Sam-I-Am and the grumpy guy. Sam is trying to feed the guy (without a name) with green eggs and ham, which he keeps rejecting despite all the options that Sam told him.
It might be a small children's book, but everyone can learn a few valuable lessons from this book.
What are the positive life lessons that you can teach your children from this story 1) Always stay focused and be patient.
2) Always be optimistic. Despite hearing no multiple times, Sam didn't lose hope and kept on trying.
3) Always keep the goal constant but try to relentlessly take different paths towards the goal when the path we initially tried to follow didn't work. It should depend on the situation and its feasibility.
What is the negative associated with this story that you should be careful about while teaching this story? The parents and teachers should be careful while telling the moral of this story to young children. There is a chance it might make the children think that they should never accept no as the answer.
For example, when the child grows up and when a lady does not accept his proposal and if she says no, the grown-up child should learn to accept that no graciously. If they can't accept that no as a definite no and keeps pestering the lady, again and again, like in this book, it might enter the dangerous stalking territories.
Despite all the negatives, we can still say that this book will be an excellent choice for you to give to the younger generation for both entertainment and inspiration.
Green Eggs and Ham is a children's book by Dr. Seuss, first published on August 12, 1960.
The story has appeared in several adaptations starting with 1973's Dr. Seuss on the Loose starring Paul Winchell as the voice of both Sam-I-am and the first-person narrator.
The story becomes a refrain as Sam persistently follows his rival through an assortment of locations (in a house, in a box, in a car, in a tree, on a train, in the dark, in the rain, on a boat) and dining partners (a mouse, a fox, and a goat).
The character finally gives in and tries the dish, just to make Sam “let him be”, and finds it quite tasty, happily responding, "I do so like green eggs and ham. Thank you. Thank you, Sam-I-am."
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز بیست و سوم ماه می سال2011میلادی
عنوان: صبحانه سبز عجیب (تخم مرغهای سبز و گوشت، سال1960میلادی)؛ نویسنده: سئوس (تئودور سوس گایزل = دکتر سوس)؛ مترجم: امیرحسین میرزائیان (میرزاییان)؛ تهران، گیسا، (سال1389هجری خورشیدی)، سال1390؛ در72ص؛ مصور، رنگی، شابک9786009161881؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، نشر آت، سال1396؛ شابک9786009643639؛ موضوع داستانهای کودکان برای گروه سنی الف و ب از نویسندگان آلمان - سده20م
اثری خیال انگیز و شعرگونه از: «تئودور سئوس گایزل»، با نام هنری: «دکتر سئوس» است، «دکتر سئوس»، محبوبترین نویسنده ی کودکان تمام دوران نام گرفته است؛ از زمان انتشار شعرهای طنزش با تصویرهای جذاب، کتابهای ایشان، کودکان بسیاری را به کتاب خواندن، تشویق کرده، و برای همین روز تولد ایشان، به نام: «روز کتابخوانی» تعیین شده است
از دیگر افتخارات «دکتر سئوس»، میتوان به جایزه ی ادبی «پولیتزر»، و هشت دکترای افتخاری، اشاره کرد؛ آثاری که بر مبنای نوشته های «دکتر سئوس» ساخته شده، تا کنون برنده سه جایزه ی «اسکار»، و سه جایزه ی «گرمی»، و سه جایزه ی «امی» شده اند؛
در داستان «صبحانه سبز عجیب»، «سم کوچک» کوشش میکند، دوست غرغروی خویش را، به خوردن غذای سبز رنگ عجیبی، دعوت کند، اما دوست اخمو، حاضر نیست به هیچ وجه، در هیچ جا و با هیچ کس، زیر بار خوردن آن برود؛ در آخر کار، متوجه میشوید، که اگر کسی غذای جدیدی را به شما تعارف کرد، و شما ظاهر آن خوراکی را دوست نداشتید، کافی است یک ذره از آن را، امتحان کنید، شاید از آن خوشتان آمد!؛
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 12/01/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ 27/10/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
Say! I love Green Eggs and Ham. I do! I love it Seuss-I-am.
So I will read it with Miloš Or he will read it cause he's precoš. And I will read it with my Të And we will read it night and day. And I will read it to my Scout And she will love it, I have no doubt. And I will read it in the rain. And I will read it on the train. And I will read it in my socks. And I will read it with a fox. And I will read it in the shower. And I will read it every hour. And I will read it doing dishes. And I will read it with the fishes. I will read it here or there. Say! I will read it ANYWHERE!
First let me say I love Dr. Seuss. I just finished reading 'Green Eggs And Ham' with my granddaughter and we really enjoyed it. In short, the book teaches children to try something first before they decide they don't like something. The illustrations are great! I beleve we can all take a lesson from this one.
Here are green eggs and ham in real life. They're made of danger.
courtesy of this woman who is undoubtedly super nice
If your ham and eggs are green, they are rancid. Of course they are! That's what green means! They're poison now. You're going to be sick. Tautological nightmare Sam I Am is trying to convince our protagonist - unnamed, like the children in Cat in the Hat and others in Seuss's Kafkaesque universe - to eat rancid food. Understandably, our hero is reluctant. But Sam I Am won't quit. He uses increasingly brutal tactics to break our hero down. Here he is hitting him with a car.
Soon Sam I Am will drive the car off a cliff into the ocean - a goat will be involved too, because why not - and here, near drowning, our hero is finally defeated.
If this all sounds a little familiar, it's because it's exactly the ending of 1984.
Seuss, one of our darkest and most anguished writers, has a fascination with psychological torture. His nihilistic masterpiece Fox in Socks presents a darker end to a similar journey: Fox brainwashes his prey with relentless reality-bending tongue twisters until Knox breaks and destroys him with his own weapons. It's A Clockwork Orange with rhyming: "I was cured alright."
The tactic here is an infinite doubling down until you lose all sense of reality. If you repeat something enough times, even if it's gibberish, it starts to sound like there must be a reasonable argument for it, or people wouldn't keep bringing it up. You use simple words, short sentences. Dr. Seuss's publisher bet him that he couldn't write a book using only 50 words. Green Eggs & Ham uses exactly 50 words. They form a lunatic vortex.
Say! In the dark? Here, in the dark? Would you, could you, in the dark?
Well, no, says our hero. That...that sounds crazy, right? I would not, could not eat green eggs and ham in the dark! Not in the rain! Not on a train! But - but maybe if we could just slow down for a moment, I could - I could have a taste. Would that be a good compromise? Is that the new normal? If you say "Fake news" enough times, some people will believe that too. It's hard to remember what normal used to be. Were there rules? Did anyone follow them? You have to step back, again and again, and re-center yourself. You do know what a sane world looks like. That food is green. It's made of poison. Don't let them break you.
Book Review 4 of 5 stars to Green Eggs and Ham, a picture book written by Dr. Seuss in 1960. Another delightful children's book full of wonderful images and fantastic rhymes. These are amazing books to use as tools that engages young kids in reading at a very early age. The topic in this one... Sam-I-Am and all the places to eat green eggs and ham! On some levels, the things they eat and the places they go are not appropriate for kids, but it's meant as humor and fun... so I let those things go. Another book to read with a child... not hand off and hope (s)he figures it out. And Dr. Seuss has a world of characters children love and want to hear and see all the time. I'd definitely recommend this one as a starter book for your kids... even with some of the items to be careful over, when it comes to being funny versus truthful... and not giving off incorrect perceptions:
I loved it as a child And I simply love it now But don't get too crazy or wild Nor caught up in the how
Enjoy our famous friend The wonderful Dr. Seuss He likes to our ears just bend A fun and dandy ruse
About Me For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by. Note: All written content is my original creation and copyrighted to me, but the graphics and images were linked from other sites and belong to them. Many thanks to their original creators.
Okay. I never heard this little story before. It seems this book . . .
. . . was written on a bet. Bennett Cerf, co-founder of Random House and Seuss’s editor, bet him $50 that he couldn’t write a book using only 50 unique words. Seuss made it work with exactly 50—but Cerf never paid his debt. Seuss probably didn’t notice, as the book went on to become one of the best-selling picture books ever written (with any number of words). The 50 unique words, in case you’re interested, are: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, & you.*
Cool, huh?
*ON THE ACCIDENTAL ORIGINS OF BELOVED BOOKS by Emily Temple Literary Hub 3/29/17
One of the most charming tales to help kids to learn how to read.
A brilliant work made only with fifty words, where forty-nine out of those words are monosyllables.
Dr. Seuss, only him.
Genius is an overstatement for a writer as him.
Also, I think that besides helping to learn how to read,...
...this funny story helps to encourage kids to try food that they haven’t eaten before, especially since “green” isn’t the most appetizing color for kids in food.
So, you have a book that will help your kids to learn in two different fields of their growth...
I had to pick a childhood book for my 2016 Reading Challenge with the Machalo group, so this one wins. Why? I have it memorized. It was required reading for me according to my children so that they would go to sleep at night. Something about the repetitive wording would lull them off to dreamland.
An epic poem for the ages! Until recently only heard orally as passed down from the mouths of ancient sages (my mom and dad), I just picked up this tome and realized the eggs and the ham were green. SICK! No wonder the poor target of Sam-I-Am's incessant torment didn't want to eat the horrible looking stuff!
I admire an author who can seamlessly incorporate their opinion. However, I must say that is the one failure of Green Eggs and Ham. The negativity is driven home time and again until the reader cries out, "OKAY, I GET IT! YOU DON'T LIKE GREEN EGGS AND HAM!". Ah, but then comes the twist! The torture victim submits, tries the colorful culinary conglomeration and finds that he actually DOES like it, and thus is freed from torment! I tell you, Green Eggs and Ham rivals "the greatest story ever told".
If you ever thought that Dr. Seuss was just a children's book - think again!
I have utilized Dr. Seuss books in my leadership classes while teaching my college courses.
I loved it, and to be honest, I know my students enjoyed it, too.
There are so many amazing learning lessons.
This one is about imagination. There is moral reasoning - concern for relationships.
The theme - don't make up your mind about something without trying it first.
I need not tell you about the story. Just enjoy reading it with your child, your grandchild - with yourself - with your college student! Recognize the underlying lessons to be gained!
I bought some green eggs from a grocery store based on he assumption they would be rated as highly as this book. Unfortunately it turned out to be mold on the eggs and I contracted salmonella and died. Would not read again.
“Try them, try them, and you may! Try them and you may, I say.” And yet another delightful book from the one and only Dr. Seuss :) It's loaded with wonderful images and fantastic rhymes. That the kids really get into and will love reading or singing along whichever you prefer. Green Eggs and Ham is really funny and silly and it's also a lot of fun. No wonder why it's a classic. The illustrations are big, bold and colorful. I love the message behind it too, it teaches children that they should try it first before deciding they don't like it, in the case of this book its food. Because we all know how picky kids can be when it comes to food. I was one of them lol. Very enjoyable read :)
‘Dr Seuss’ being the pen name under which Theodor Seuss Geisel wrote (taking his middle name and making full use of his Oxford University PhD in English literature) was the American born grandson of German immigrants to the US.
Beginning his career in the late 1920’s as an illustrator and cartoonist, it wasn’t until nearly 30 years later that Seuss produced his classic series of children’s books that so many of us know and love.
Never having the benefit of the books of Dr Seuss when I was a child, it was with great pleasure that I discovered his work many years later when reading them to my own children.
For anyone who has not yet discovered Seuss’s classic children’s books – now is the time to do so! What Seuss has created using such imagination, with a particularly dynamic (both flamboyant but simple) and unique style of illustration, coupled with his verse rhythms and the use of repetitive but building and twisting phrases – all in an extremely and deliberately accessible way, is a series of works which are a fantastic visual and verbal feast, captivating both children and adults alike.
For me the most memorable examples of Seuss’s work are: ‘The Cat in the Hat’ (along with its sequel ‘The Cat in the Hat Comes Back’) – For the wonderful creation of mischief that is the ‘Cat in the Hat’ ‘Fox in Socks’ – For the tremendously bizarre tongue-twisters ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ – For the ever building and dynamic nature of the verse. All of them of course have Seuss’s trademark fantastic illustrations and rhythmic verses throughout.
It is that unique combination of: Attractive illustrations and exciting verse – both very dynamic, always moving always going somewhere new; both very strange, silly and bizarre – all in an extremely accessible, engaging and compelling (and let’s not forget educational) way – which creates Dr Seuss’s fantastically immersive world.
A timeless world of the imagination, of amazing words, pictures, rhymes, stories, learning, but above all else – FUN
Not just for children, but for the child in all of us.
I have to read this twice before I was able to grasp the moral lessons that this children's story book wants to impart to readers. I'm very much aware that target audience for these story books of Dr. Seuss are kids. I can't stop myself on reading them because the colorful illustrations and story are not only enticing, but because all of his books has a hidden moral lesson in them which adult readers could really appreciate.
I was never a fan of Dr. Seuss books. My mother purchased this book and I read it to my younger siblings. They seemed by like the colorful pictures and rhyming verses.
It was a fun book for younger children so I, later, purchased it and read to my kids.
Roughly fifteen years ago, when I was just starting out in high school, nothing in the world was more subversive or thought-provoking for me than staying up late on the weekend and watching Saturday Night Live. Around the same time, I think during the final year or two of the Reagan administration (my memory is not so good), the Reverend Jesse Jackson made a cameo appearance on the Weekend Update segment. He read Green Eggs and Ham. No adlibbing, no extra jokes, nothing. He just read the book, completely straight. In his voice - with all the authority and suppressed rage of Jackson in his anti-Reagan prime - this book's subversive undercurrent stood out for all to see. "I do not like them, Sam I am!" became a cry for all the people the 1980's forgot about. Suddenly, a correlation was drawn in my head between a story I loved as a kid, and my teen angst-fueled growing fascination with "fight the power" comedy. Fifteen or more years later, this remains one of my favorite books of all time. I am sure Dr. Suess had a lot to do with me becoming the man I am today, but this book, in particular, is one I come back to over and over again. Shortly after George W. Bush was re-elected in 2004, I read it again, and for weeks I couldn't get the mantra out of my head, "I do not like them, SAM I AM."
I think Seuss is a genius at two distinct genres of children's lit -- the message book and the early reader. This is the book in which I feel that he best balances the two. From the message side, Sam teaches us about persistence while his unnamed, skeptical pal learns that one need not cling desperately to an old idea because ideas (like tastes in oddly colored foodstuffs) can change. But it's also a great example of what a child's reader should be. It has an engaging plot, but effectively uses repetition of simple, rhyming words to enable the developing reader to begin reading along quickly. And the illustrations are brilliant as the Seussian ones always are.
I have indeed always very much loved Green Eggs and Ham, as both Dr. Seuss' poetic, rhythmic text and his accompanying illustrations are both entertaining and enchanting (a sweet delight, with movement, joy and exuberant silliness). And yet, the presented underlying message of Green Eggs and Ham also shows a basic and important, necessary truth (to not simply and categorically insist that one does not enjoy a certain food, but to actually try it first, that one needs to at least taste a food before making a decision as to whether one likes it or not). That being said, I can also to a point appreciate that some individuals might well consider Sam-I-Am massively annoying, and even bordering on the offensive, with his continuous insisting, basically hounding if not actually stalking the other nameless character until he finally gives up and resignedly tries Sam's green eggs and ham. Thus, while I personally do very much adore Green Eggs and Ham and cherish the message of trying different foods that Dr. Seuss is trying to convey, I also do comprehend that for some, Sam-I-Am is at best tedious and a bit like a recurring mosquito annoyingly buzzing around one's ear.
But actually, for my adult and educated self, for my language teacher/instructor self, the genius of Green Eggs and Ham actually now seems to lie NOT so much in the message of the presented narrative, but in Dr. Seuss' poetic, repetitive text in at of itself, in a text that with fun and rhythm introduces children to important tenets of English grammar and word usage (different verb forms, prepositions and negation are prominently featured in Green Eggs and Ham and by repeating the author's words or by having them read aloud, children learn, children become accustomed to proper preposition usage, the differences between the future and the present tenses of verbs, modal verbs such as "can" and "should" and the position of the negative). A wonderful, marvellous combination of enjoyment and didactic intent, and highly recommended for both in-class and at home practice/use, and absolutely outstanding for ESL instruction (case in point, in grade four, after my family had immigrated from Germany to Canada, my homeroom teacher used Green Eggs and Ham with me and it definitely made learning English verbs and the many different prepositions much easier and also much more fun to both learn and remember). And not just for children either, as I have also used the Green Eggs and Ham as a fun introductory activity for novice adult ESL learners with lasting and successful results (with the caveat to NOT ONLY use material primarily meant and designated for children with adult learners, but that as a quick activity, Green Eggs and Ham is an enjoyable, teachable interlude).
I never appreciated Green Eggs and Ham when I was a kid. I mean, it was ok, and it was Dr. Seuss, but it is a book about green eggs and ham.
When my niece and nephew were born, however, all that changed. I should say, when my very strong-willed, don't-take-no-for-an-answer, nag-the-grown-ups-until-they-break-down-sobbing niece and nephew were born, Green Eggs and Ham read like a completely different book to me. That Sam-I-Am drives this poor... whatever-he-is to complete distraction! I feel for that poor wretch! And when I read this story to the kids, I now have a practically bottomless pool of personal experience to draw upon when I give voice to that chattering Sam-I-Am and that poor whatever-he-is, who is just trying to cling to the last disintegrating threads of his sanity!
As a kid I didn't think Green Eggs and Ham was anything special. As an adult, I don't think that there is any other book that speaks with a truer, more authentic voice than Green Eggs and Ham.