F?amed children’s author Dr. Seuss once said, “You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.” Last Thursday, nobody had their eyes shut as several adults and pre-school children gathered around a chair in the Mineral County Library and listened to Dr. Seuss stories to celebrate the author’s 113th birthday.

The story-tellers were Mineral County Commissioner, Roman Zylawy, and Superior’s Gordon Hendrick.

March 2 is children’s author’s birthday, and is celebrated across the nation in conjunction with Read Across America, an annual reading motivation and awareness program for children. More than 15 children gathered around Zylawy and listened intently as he read “Green Eggs and Ham.”

“I don’t like ham,” said one girl in the group, after Zylawy asked if they like salt and pepper on their eggs. One little six month girl, Alli Neu, seemed enamored by the newly retired highway patrol officer in his signature cowboy hat. As well she should, since it was her Uncle Roman turning the pages as Sam in “Sam-I-Am”, tries to get an unwilling character to try his green eggs and ham.

Next, Gordon entertained the eager audience with “Mr. Brown Can Moo. Can You?” and “What Pet Should I Get?” He had the youngsters join in to make fish sounds like “pop, pop pop,” and other critter noises. After storytime, Laura Acker, with Parents as Teachers, played some Dr. Seuss games, including a variation of “Twister” where they had to find different characters on a Dr. Seuss rug and step on it with their foot, or their elbow, or their head.

Once the games were over, the kids were able to make fun, healthy treats by combining pieces of banana and strawberries onto a skewer, or they created a skewer of cheese and cherry tomatoes.

“This was a wonderful turnout,” said Library Director, Guna Chubrek.

She was thrilled to have Roman and Gordon come in to read, and Laura to do some activities with the kids. She said the County Commissioners had actually put the event on their weekly calendar and Commissioners Duane Simons and Laurie Johnston also attended the reading.

Everyone seems to have a favorite Dr. Seuss book, with more than 40 titles to select from, including popular stories like, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”, “One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish”, “If I ran the zoo”, “Yertle the Turtle”, and “The Foot Book”. However, “Horton Hears a Who!” seems to have struck a chord with the adults because Zylawy, Hendrick, and Chubrek all said that was their favorite.

Some of the books surpassed their paper confines and became four movies, 11 television shows, four television series, and a Broadway musical, including “The Cat in the Hat” written in 1957, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” in 1957, and “The Lorax” in 1971. Dr. Seuss, who’s real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel, died in Sept. 1991, and his books have sold over 600 million copies and have been translated into more than 20 languages.

Many of Geisel’s books expressed his views on a variety of social and political issues. For example, ”The Lorax” was about environmentalism and anti-consumerism. “The Sneetches,” written in 1961, was about racial equality. “The Butter Battle Book,” from 1984, was about the arms race. “Yertle the Turtle,” from 1958, was about Hitler and anti-authoritarianism. “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” criticized the materialism and consumerism of the Christmas season and “Horton Hears a Who!,” from 1954, was about anti-isolationism and internationalism.

Born in 1904, Dr. Seuss spent his entire career as an illustrator and cartoonist, though it wasn’t until after World War II, when he started to write his children’s books.

The Mineral County Library has story-time every Thursday morning at 11:00 for preschoolers, who can enjoy authors like Dr. Seuss and many others.