I just saw a review of “Heroes for My Son” by Brad Metzler, which contains a “hand-picked collection” of stories from 52 men and women that the author wanted to share with his kids.
The review contains a brief overview of several of the stories, including some interesting information on Dr. Seuss that I wanted to share:
“…When Theodor Seuss Geisel realized the current crop of children’s books, stories like “Dick and Jane,” were too nice, he set out to change them. Life magazine reported that those books were leading to massive literacy problems among kids. So his publisher gave him 348 words not commonly read by schoolchildren but thought important to learn. He took 223 words from the list and added 13 others. And with only those 236 words, he created a book 1,626 words in length, called “The Cat in the Hat,” which sold nearly 1 million copies within three years. Today, over 200 million copies of Dr. Seuss books have been sold. Dr. Seuss’ first children’s book was rejected by 27 different publishers.“
I think we are all glad he didn’t give up after the first 27 rejections.
