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Celebrate Dr. Suess's Birthday March 2nd

By V. Garcia March 1, 2021

Dr. Seuss’s Birthday is March 2nd

Get involved! Dr. Seuss’s Birthday is a nationwide reading celebration that takes place annually on March 2 — Dr. Seuss’s birthday.

Across the country, thousands of schools, libraries, and community centers participate by bringing together kids, teens, and books, and you can too!

Incorporate our printable guides and activities to celebrate reading with young people. Here are some great ideas from Suessvile to help you celebrate!

Dr. Seuss Quote #1

The Cat’s Hat CakeWe know you'd like a special way To celebrate the Cat's birthday. What's better than a hat-shaped cake? So here is one that you can bake.

Cat in the Hat Cake

Dr. Seuss Quote #7

The Cat in the Hat keeps Thing 1 and Thing 2 in his big, red, wood box. If you had your own big, red, wood box just like the Cat’s, what would you want to keep in there? Draw a picture of all the fun things you would keep. Fun-In-A-Box

Fun in a box


History of Dr. Seuss’s Birthday

Theodor  Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts and his grandparents were German immigrants. He grew up around a wealthy extended family during World War I which helped shape his patriotism.  As a scout, he sold War bonds and as the story goes, he sold so many that he was to be honored by President Theodor Roosevelt. When the award ceremony took place, however, Roosevelt only had nine medals leaving young Seuss without a medal. Teddy asked, “What’s this boy doing here?”  and ever since Suess suffered from stage fright.

Seuss graduated from high school in 1921 and attended Dartmouth College where he joined a  humor magazine called the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern. He would eventually become editor-in-chief of the publication, but he was forced to resign.

Seuss drew over 400 political  cartoons during World War II for the New York daily newspaper called  “PM.” Many of them were politically charged against the dictators Hitler and Mussolini and Japanese Americans were depicted as latent traitors.  In them, he also showed his support of President Roosevelt and critiqued  Congress and he wrote films for the U.S. Air Force.

By the 1950s,  he wrote children’s books after the war in La Jolla, California under the pen name Dr. Seuss. Some of these were “The Cat in the Hat,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” and “Green Eggs and Ham,” and he continued to write until his death on September 24, 1991. His legacy lives on as his beloved children’s books continue to sell well and inspire young people to read. In 1997, the National Education Association chose his birthday to celebrate reading and the first Read Across America Day was held the next year in 1998.

Dr. Seuss Quote #6