Dr. Seuss’ first book is a delightful story about a boy with a big imagination. Marco knows his father will ask him what interesting things he saw on his way home from school, but the ordinary horse and wagon are not exactly exciting--so he imagines what this everyday sight could really be.

Contributed by B. Karp, Librarian, New York, USA

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2012 is the seventy-fifth anniversary for Dr. Seuss’s first book And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street. In this tale told in rhyme by young Marco, his father encourages him to walk home from school with “your eyelids up/And see what you can see.”

Unfortunately, Marco and his father have different ideas as to keeping one’s eyelids up. One can only guess that the father is attempting to promote a son alert and observant of his surroundings in the world around him. Marco, by contrast, doesn’t believe that the factual, mundane details of his walk home are of sufficient interest without creative embellishment. So the wagon drawn by a horse progresses through the book to include (among other details), an elephant, a band, the mayor, and a ten-foot beard in need of a comb.

When at long last, Marco and his imaginative vision arrive home, the final details Marco relates to his father will surprise the reader.

Recommended by Kate Stehman, Librarian,Pennsylvania, USA