"The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories" by Dr. Seuss

When I started reading The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories by Dr. Seuss, I was eagerly expecting to immerse myself in the fanciful rhymes and rhythms that are so characteristic of this author. I was not disappointed.

But before I even made it to the stories, I was drawn into the introduction, where I learned a few interesting tidbits about the life of Dr. Seuss. Dr. Seuss, whose given name was Ted Giesel, published short stories like the ones found in this book in magazines from 1948 to 1959. The magazines, like Redbook and Children’s Activities, were read and thrown away when the new month’s magazine came.

The stories in this book represent Dr. Seuss’s writing philosophy which had changed after World War II. During that time he saw the lives and values of German and Japanese children who were reared in propaganda altered. He began to take his work as a children’s author more seriously, believing that authors could educate children through reading.

The first story in this book, The Bippolo Seed, is about a duck who discovers a magical seed in a box:

“Who finds this rare box will be lucky, indeed,

For inside this box is a Bippolo Seed!

Plant it and wish! And then count up to three!

Whatever you wish for, whatever it be

Will sprout and grow out of a Bippolo Tree!”

The duck decides that because he doesn’t need much, he will just wish for a week’s worth of duck food. Before he has a chance to plant his seed, however, a cat, who overheard his musings, stops him and encourages him to think of more that he could wish for in order to become richer and happier. The duck warms to the idea and begins to list wildly all of the many things he will wish for. He gets “so dizzy and crazy with greed,” that he loses hold of the Bippolo seed. It falls into the nearby river, and no matter how much they search, the cat and duck can’t find the seed back again. This clever and slightly goofy fable teaches kids not to become greedy but to be content with having just enough.

The other six stories in the book are equally fun and full of Seussical quirks. Each story hides a gem of wisdom under the rhymes. In Dr. Seuss’s books, I am used to finding bright colorful pictures bursting out of each page I was a little disappointed when reading The Bippolo Seed story because there were very few pictures accompanying the story. I assume that this is because most of these stories were originally published in magazines, but I was still a little disappointed. Many of the stories later in the book do have more pictures, however, and the signature rhyming is as strong as ever in this book. I highly recommend it to parents, especially those with kids who can sit through and glean from a story without pictures. The kids who come to story time at our library love flannel board rhymes, and I think many of these stories would be fun to put onto a flannel board. I could see myself making a flannel duck, cat, seed, and box, as well as the items the duck wishes for, and reading the story with the accompaniment of the flannel items. So much fun!