Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!

View other editions of Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!.
View books by Dr. Seuss.

Learning Creativity for Children of All Ages - Rated
This book was one of the five that I most enjoyed reading to our four children when they were young. Upon rereading the book, I bgan to realize why I enjoyed it so much . . . as well as why they did.

Children begin with quite vivid imaginations, and education (and the socializing process) quickly discourage their imaginations in favor of coloring between the lines (following the conformist rules). This wonderful book by Dr. Seuss extolls the creative process and liberates the child (and the parent) to use their imaginations. "THINK! You can think any THINK that you wish . . . Think of a race on a horse on a ball with a fish!" It's like getting a license to use your natural creativity.

The book encourages creativity in a variety of effective ways. As the above quote shows, juxtaposition (combined with wonderfully funny illustrations) can allow the child to see that words can be jumbled together in ways to create fantastic images. The book begins and ends with this method.

Through the book, the illustrations are drawn to highlight the unusual. Many different colors are combined, in odd ways, and in odd shapes.

Then, after the imagination is revved up a bit, Dr. Seuss begins to do mental pirouettes by introducing such creatures as GUFFS (fuzzy orange creatures with tails that have large furry balls along them them), SNUVS (yellow creatures wearing color mismatched gloves -- you can see how the name sometimes helps with the rhyming), BLOOGS (green, yellow, and blue creatures blowing by in the white sky above the black water), and ZONGS (with a tail that is 15 times as long as the body which winds among blue and pink mushrooms).

Of course, the visions are sometimes more literal: Kitty O'Sullivan Krauss diving into a balloon pool over her house.

I thought that the RINK-RINKER-FINK and the VIPPER of VIPP were especially wonderful inventions. They juxtapose many different concepts in a particularly mind-liberating way.

If any book can overcome you tradition, misconception, and disbelief stalls, this one is it. By sharing it with your children while they are young, you can keep them from ever developing the stalls in the first place.

Learning Creativity for Children of All Ages - Rated
This book was one of the five that I most enjoyed reading to our four children when they were young. Upon rereading the book, I bgan to realize why I enjoyed it so much . . . as well as why they did.

Children begin with quite vivid imaginations, and education (and the socializing process) quickly discourage their imaginations in favor of coloring between the lines (following the conformist rules). This wonderful book by Dr. Seuss extolls the creative process and liberates the child (and the parent) to use their imaginations. "THINK! You can think any THINK that you wish . . . Think of a race on a horse on a ball with a fish!" It's like getting a license to use your natural creativity.

The book encourages creativity in a variety of effective ways. As the above quote shows, juxtaposition (combined with wonderfully funny illustrations) can allow the child to see that words can be jumbled together in ways to create fantastic images. The book begins and ends with this method.

Through the book, the illustrations are drawn to highlight the unusual. Many different colors are combined, in odd ways, and in odd shapes.

Then, after the imagination is revved up a bit, Dr. Seuss begins to do mental pirouettes by introducing such creatures as GUFFS (fuzzy orange creatures with tails that have large furry balls along them them), SNUVS (yellow creatures wearing color mismatched gloves -- you can see how the name sometimes helps with the rhyming), BLOOGS (green, yellow, and blue creatures blowing by in the white sky above the black water), and ZONGS (with a tail that is 15 times as long as the body which winds among blue and pink mushrooms).

Of course, the visions are sometimes more literal: Kitty O'Sullivan Krauss diving into a balloon pool over her house.

I thought that the RINK-RINKER-FINK and the VIPPER of VIPP were especially wonderful inventions. They juxtapose many different concepts in a particularly mind-liberating way.

If any book can overcome you tradition, misconception, and disbelief stalls, this one is it. By sharing it with your children while they are young, you can keep them from ever developing the stalls in the first place.

Learning Creativity for Children of All Ages - Rated
This book was one of the five that I most enjoyed reading to our four children when they were young. Upon rereading the book, I bgan to realize why I enjoyed it so much . . . as well as why they did.

Children begin with quite vivid imaginations, and education (and the socializing process) quickly discourage their imaginations in favor of coloring between the lines (following the conformist rules). This wonderful book by Dr. Seuss extolls the creative process and liberates the child (and the parent) to use their imaginations. "THINK! You can think any THINK that you wish . . . Think of a race on a horse on a ball with a fish!" It's like getting a license to use your natural creativity.

The book encourages creativity in a variety of effective ways. As the above quote shows, juxtaposition (combined with wonderfully funny illustrations) can allow the child to see that words can be jumbled together in ways to create fantastic images. The book begins and ends with this method.

Through the book, the illustrations are drawn to highlight the unusual. Many different colors are combined, in odd ways, and in odd shapes.

Then, after the imagination is revved up a bit, Dr. Seuss begins to do mental pirouettes by introducing such creatures as GUFFS (fuzzy orange creatures with tails that have large furry balls along them them), SNUVS (yellow creatures wearing color mismatched gloves -- you can see how the name sometimes helps with the rhyming), BLOOGS (green, yellow, and blue creatures blowing by in the white sky above the black water), and ZONGS (with a tail that is 15 times as long as the body which winds among blue and pink mushrooms).

Of course, the visions are sometimes more literal: Kitty O'Sullivan Krauss diving into a balloon pool over her house.

I thought that the RINK-RINKER-FINK and the VIPPER of VIPP were especially wonderful inventions. They juxtapose many different concepts in a particularly mind-liberating way.

If any book can overcome you tradition, misconception, and disbelief stalls, this one is it. By sharing it with your children while they are young, you can keep them from ever developing the stalls in the first place.

But can you think as many thinks as Dr. Seuss thinks? - Rated
"Life" magazine published a report in May of 1954 about illiteracy among American school children. One of the key things in this article was that children were not inspired to read because their books were boring, which is to say the world of Dick, Jane and Spot. So it came to pass that Theodore Geisel's publisher sent him and a list of 400 words that had to be cut to 250 (because that was how many words it was believed a first grader could understand before their heads exploded or something), and then write a book. At this point in the history of the world Geisel was best known as the creator of Gerald McBoing-Boing, an animated character for which he won an Oscar. The book, of course, was "The Cat in the Hat," which used 220 of those words, and for the rest of his life Dr. Seuss wrote books that were part of the Beginner Books and Bright and Early Books series, which proudly allowed young kids to proclaim "I Can Read It All By Myself." Consequently, Dr. Seuss was one of the major forces in American literacy in the last half of the 20th century.

But beyond that, Dr. Seuss was the personification of imagination for all those generations of children, and this particular legacy is embodied best in his 1975 book "Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!" Told in the distinctive verse style of Dr. Seuss, this book gets young readers to think about all the things then can think if only they try. The book is filled with the delightful creatures of Dr. Seuss's own fertile imagination, from the Guff and the Snuvs to the Bloogs and the Rink-Rinker-Fink. However, my favorite is the Jibboo: what would you do if you met one? After reading this delightful book beginning readers can either make up their own thinks or they can try out their imagination by thinking of what happens next in these pictures, where strange creatures enjoy beautiful schlopp with a cherry on top or visiting the Vipper of Vipp. There is a reason why virtually every one of the books Dr. Seuss wrote are considered classics and it is due as much to the imagination that he displays on each and every page as it is to his ability to arrange 220 (or more) words in non-boring ways.

A wonderful excursion into Dr Seuss' world of fantasy. - Rated
My daughter, Alice, is only 1 and yet has developed a love of Dr Seuss. This is her favourite book which she carries around with her everywhere - being a small hardback it is ideal for her little hands to hold! She loves to have it read to her over and over again. It really makes you read carefully, the number of adults I've heard saying 'Oh, the things you can think' instead of 'thinks'. When she can speak, I'm sure she will correct them. For the time being however, she is thrilled by the colourful illustrations and is even quite content to study the book upside down! I'm sure Dr Seuss would approve. I'm so impressed I'm about to buy some more in the series before this one falls apart due to over use!