Bartholomew and the Oobleck

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Oobleckistan - Rated
"Bartholomew and the Oobleck" was possibly my favorite Seuss book, when I was a kid. I was an experienced reader by the time "The Cat in the Hat" came out, so I wasn't entirely taken by Dr. Seuss's silliness, but I could admire his off-the-wall humor. "Bartholomew" however, was downright scary. And it wasn't in doggerel rhyme, so it had the flavour of the science fiction books I liked to read.

Bartholomew, the king's page, saves the kingdom from the King's insatiable desire to have the latest, the newest and the unusual, even if it means disaster. In this case, the King orders the royal magicians to create something better than boring old rain or snow (possibly the Kingdom is in Buffalo, New York, Detroit or Boston, where the amount and quality of precipitation is of the sort to have you nodding at the wisdom of the King's request.) The magicians create Oobleck, a snotty-green, sticky substance that effectively provides national unity by gluing the entire place, people and all, together.

As you probably suspected as a child, and forgot as an adult, Oobleck is symbolic of nuclear fallout. At the time Seuss wrote "Barthomew and the Oobleck", the world was in the grip of the Cold War and the index fingers of two nations were poised on the doomsday button. Seuss's magicians (scientists) don't exactly know what Oobleck is or does, but they are happy to release it on the world. Seuss is incredibly sly and clever here--there was a lot of thought that fallout and residual radiation with half-lives of thousands of years might not be so terrific to loose on the world, yet here we are, 50 years later or so, looking down the barrel of a nuclear Iran. Right on, Dr. Seuss.

Back in that frightening time of the Cold War in the US, children were taught to dive under their desks in air raid drills and cover their necks with their hands. Now, as a child, I considered the utter stupidity of this exercise. Firstly, I didn't find the small wood-and-metal desk to be adequate at all for my larger-than-average frame (I was a tall kid) and since nuclear weapons gave off radiation just like x-rays, why wouldn't the fallout go right through your spindly hands and irradiate your neck, just like those xray boxes in shoe stores that showed Mummy why you needed corrective shoes (now, there was a bad, bad, marketing idea.) Dr. Seuss's horrific yet comic book about Oobleck really resonated with me as a child, and I think it's a brilliant book of satire. It won the Caldecott Medal, and I think it has often been overlooked for the more sunny of Dr. Seuss's books. But it's brilliant, and I think it's just as timely today as a book for the family as ever. Kinda...sticks....with you. Really.

A Power Trip Can Put You in a Sticky Situation! - Rated
The King of Didd loved to look into the sky. But he was increasingly unhappy with what he saw -- only rain, snow, fog, and sunshine. As a powerful king, he decided to change things so he could get more.

The book is a wonderful look at the perils of getting what you think you want, a great lesson for children to learn at an early age. Unlike other Dr. Seuss books, this one is mostly in prose. The color in the illustrations is limited to green to flesh out the oobleck. The drawings and the humor though are first rate Dr. Seuss!

Bartholomew is the King's page boy, and the king's source of common sense. When the king decides to call in his magicians to create oobleck, Bartholomew's warnings are unheeded. Even the magicians give a warning, for they have never made oobleck before and don't quite know how it will turn out. Nevertheless, the king orders the magicians to go ahead. When the first green drops hit, the king decides to declare a holiday.

But soon there are problems. Oobleck is very sticky! And it's coming down in ever increasing quantities. What do you do?

The resolution is a particularly good one, for it reinforces the moral that any willful thing we decide to do can be undone if we unbend our will. (It also encourages good manners.)

Reading this book reminded me of when I was about five. I only liked to eat junk food. I begged my parents to buy ever larger quantities. Finally, my mother said. "All right. You're in charge of buying food for yourself this week. You'll have only that to eat." I stocked up on potato chips, candy, soft drinks, and other wonderful snacks. By the fourth day, I couldn't face any more junk food. I begged my mother to take back the job of selecting food for me!

After you finish enjoying the story, I suggest that you also talk to your child about how to get rid of unexpected substances. This can be a great encourager of creativity. For years, I have used an interview question that I learned during a scholarship interview while I was in high school. What would you do if you woke up one morning and the world was covered to a depth of 30 feet by ping pong balls?

A good lesson to reinforce is to encourage your child to consider what could go wrong, and how to handle that, before trying to make some change. That approach is good training for the realities of life.

Enjoy what you have!

Wonderful book, Teachers can use it for science!!! - Rated
This book is a great motivational book for science class. After reading about the gooey sticky oobleck, take corn starch, water and food coloring to make your own oobleck. It looks like a liquad, but feels like a liquad and a solid! The kids love it

The King was Ooblecked - Rated
One of the few sequels Suess wrote,it is also one of the best.King Derwin wants to control the weather and has his magicians(in their secret cave in Neeka-Tave)conjur up a brand-new substance-which not even they know all about.The oobleck storm messes up the kingdom the day it falls-and King Derwin realizes how to stop it. With a little-okay,a big-help from Bartholemew, the King sees that the best magic words are the simplest ones.

The power of two little words! - Rated
Boy, this book takes me back when I was very young. I really enjoyed it. And, now that I'm considerably older, I still enjoy it. It is a story about a king who is bored with the things that fall from the sky (for example, rain, snow, etc.) and orders his magicians to make something new. They come up with oobleck, a green, gooey substance. But, when it begins to fall, it messes up everything and the king's page, Bartholomew, teaches the king the power of the words, "I'm sorry." The book was a 1950 Caldecott Honor book (i.e., a runner-up to the Medal winner) for best illustration in a children's book.