I AM a Dr Seuss fan.
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A fan I am.
I am lifted away by The Lorax, I love Green Eggs and Ham and then there’s the thousands of feet you really must meet in The Foot Book.
Oh, the places you can go with the good doctor! And you can even go in utero, though I didn’t venture there since I didn’t know … until well after it was too late.
Instead we started our daughters on Dr Seuss board books the minute we got home from the hospital.
I know they didn’t get the jokes or lift the flaps and I wondered if I’d jumped the gun when our first-born almost made a meal of Wacky Weather cutting teeth. But I’m sure they heard the words and liked the rhyming text.
And they also had a wry sense of humour because as they grew up they always asked to hear Fox in Socks twice!
“Again, again!!”
Skipping ahead a few chapters to August 2016, our eldest daughter rates Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton’s Treehouse series and the youngest cannot go past Griffiths’ Brave Dave. Between them, Griffiths and Denton have only marginally less influence on our daughters’ wellbeing than we do. And The 78-Storey Treehouse is only going to get bigger! (Next storey up August 2017.)
While treasured reads are one thing, costumes for the annual Book Week (August 20-26) parade are an entirely different story.
The eldest wants to go as Harry Potter while the youngest – presently sporting a thigh-high plaster cast on her right leg – has chosen to go as an owl.
After I googled the theme for this year’s Book Week, Australia – Story Country, I wondered if they were a little off the literary track.
“You’re reading too much into it, Mum,” the eldest informs, “It’s totes fine to be a kid wizard.”
Having inherited a menagerie of dress-ups, the youngest is probably only one owl costume short of an entire woodland picnic.
“Any chance you could go as Bambi?” I enquire.
“A mushroom? What about Snow White or one of the seven dwarfs?”
“Nope,” she replies, “No princesses, I’m an owl. Hoot-hoot!”
Not wanting to put the cat among Mo Willems’ upwardly-mobile pigeons, I got on board with the owl costume.
I found a feathery-look tunic in the dress-ups and a sequined mask, to which I meant to hot glue a felt beak just as soon as I could remember where I left the hot glue gun.
As luck would have it, our youngest changed flight paths.
“Mum, I was thinking I could go as Cinderella,” she says, out of the blue.
“Why?” I ask.
“Because I haven’t been able to wear a shoe on one foot for really, the very longest time!”
“That’s a super idea,” I say.
However, I have a spare owl costume if anyone needs it.
Here’s five Australia – Story Country costumes to get you out of a tight Book Week parade bind:
- Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (May Gibbs) – Green or beige beanie, leotard and tulle skirt.
- Koala Lou (Mem Fox) – Brown tights, fluffy vest and koala mask.
- Tashi (Barbara and Anna Fienberg) – Pointy felt hat, red vest and Ugg boots.
- Diary of a Wombat (Jackie French) – Wombat onesie.
- Playing Beatie Bow (Ruth Park) – Black dress, stockings and patent shoes.