Author | Dr. Seuss |
---|---|
Language | English |
Genre | Children's literature |
Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | 1949 (renewed in 1976) |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (hardcover) |
Pages | 48 pages |
ISBN | 0-394-80075-3 |
Preceded by | Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose |
Followed by | If I Ran the Zoo |
Bartholomew and the Oobleck is a 1949 children's book by Dr. Seuss . It follows the adventures of a young boy named Bartholomew Cubbins, a page boy who must rescue his kingdom from a sticky green substance called Oobleck. The book is a sequel of sorts to The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins . Unlike most of Seuss's books, which are written in anapestic tetrameter, Bartholomew and the Oobleck is a prose work.
Geisel said he drew inspiration for the book when he was stationed in Belgium during World War II. At one point, during a rainstorm, he overheard a conversation between some of the other soldiers in his regiment, during which one of them lamented, "Rain, always rain. Why can't we have something different for a change?" [1]
The book was named a Caldecott Honor Book in 1950. [2] [3]
The book opens with an explanation of how people in the Kingdom of Didd still talk about "the year the King got angry with the sky". Throughout the year, the king of Didd, Theobald Thindner Derwin, gets angry at rain in spring, sun in summer, fog in autumn, and snow in winter because he wants something new to come down from the sky, but his personal advisor and page boy, Bartholomew Cubbins, is a bit too uncomfortable to agree with it. The king gets the idea that he can rule the sky, being the king, and he orders Bartholomew to summon the Royal Magicians, who announce that they can make a substance called Oobleck, which will not look anything at all like the regular weather. That evening, the magicians make the substance at their cave at Mystic Mountain Neeka-tave and release it into the atmosphere.
The next morning, the Oobleck starts falling from the sky. When the King sees it, he is overjoyed. He declares the day a holiday and orders Bartholomew to tell the Royal Bell Ringer to announce the occasion, but the bell will not ring; the Oobleck turns out to be both gelatinous and adhesive, and it has gummed up the bell. When Bartholomew sees a robin trapped and paralyzed in her nest by the Oobleck, he decides to warn the kingdom. The Royal Trumpeter tries to sound the alarm, but Oobleck gets into the trumpet and the trumpeter gets his hand stuck trying to remove it. Bartholomew tells the Captain of the Guards to warn the kingdom, but the captain, determined to prove that he's not afraid of the Oobleck, scoops some up with his sword and eats it, only to get his mouth stuck and breathe out sticky green bubbles. In the meantime, the Oobleck is falling in larger quantities than before, and is now threatening to flood the kingdom. Soon, it starts spilling into the palace as well, and pretty soon, no matter how Bartholomew tries to warn them, everybody is stuck to it and flopping about in the goo. So Bartholomew decides to ask the king for advice to save the Kingdom of Didd from the falling Oobleck.
In the throne room, the king, now covered in Oobleck, orders Bartholomew to summon the magicians to stop the storm of gooey Oobleck, but Bartholomew delivers the bad news that "their cave on Mountain Neeka-tave is buried deep in Oobleck". The king gets the idea to use the magicians' magic words "Shuffle Duffle Muzzle Muff" (but there are more unknown words) to stop the Oobleck, but he cannot remember the whole incantation, and, in any case, he is not a magician. A much-more confident Bartholomew scolds the king for ignoring him in favor of the falling Oobleck and making such a foolish wish, and he tells him to apologize for the mess his wish has caused. The king is reluctant at first, but belts out a tearful apology after Bartholomew tells him he's "no sort of king at all" if he and his subjects are drowning in Oobleck and he won't own up to his mistakes. Immediately after the king says those simple words in tears and sobs, "I'm Sorry", the Oobleck storm disappears and the sun melts away all the green slime. The king rings the bell proclaiming the day a holiday, honored not to Oobleck, but honored to rain, sun, fog, and snow—the four things that have always come down from the sky. After that, Bartholomew is hailed a hero for saving the kingdom, with the help of the king.
A version recorded by the actor Marvin Miller for RCA Records in 1959 and dramatized by Seuss himself varies slightly from the book: the king first encounters the Oobleck in his royal bathtub when it comes out of the water faucet, which causes him to become stuck. Also, Bartholomew encounters Gussie, the royal cook, who is in panic with what he sees. The album from which the recording is part was nominated for the 1961 Grammy Award for Best Children's Album.
A non-Newtonian fluid was named after the substance in this Dr. Seuss book. [4] [5]
The web-series RWBY has a character called Dr. Bartholomew Oobleck, who is named after the substance in this book.
Israeli rock-opera for children "Gedaliyahu ve-ha-mistuk" (1982) composed by Gary Ekstein is based on Dr. Seuss' book.
Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American children's author and cartoonist. He is known for his work writing and illustrating more than 60 books under the pen name Dr. Seuss. His work includes many of the most popular children's books of all time, selling over 600 million copies and being translated into more than 20 languages by the time of his death.
A non-Newtonian fluid is a fluid that does not follow Newton's law of viscosity, that is, it has variable viscosity dependent on stress. In particular, the viscosity of non-Newtonian fluids can change when subjected to force. Ketchup, for example, becomes runnier when shaken and is thus a non-Newtonian fluid. Many salt solutions and molten polymers are non-Newtonian fluids, as are many commonly found substances such as custard, toothpaste, starch suspensions, corn starch, paint, blood, melted butter, and shampoo.
A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images.
The Randolph Caldecott Medal, frequently shortened to just the Caldecott, annually recognizes the preceding year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". It is awarded to the illustrator by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The Caldecott and Newbery Medals are considered the most prestigious American children's book awards. Besides the Caldecott Medal, the committee awards a variable number of citations to runners-up they deem worthy, called the Caldecott Honor or Caldecott Honor Books.
Horton Hears a Who! is a children's book written and illustrated by Theodor Seuss Geisel under the pen name Dr. Seuss. It was published in 1954 by Random House. This book tells the story of Horton the Elephant and his adventures saving Whoville, a tiny planet located on a speck of dust, from the animals who mock him. These animals attempt to steal and burn the speck of dust, so Horton goes to great lengths to save Whoville from being incinerated.
James W. Kemp was a United Methodist pastor and author from Lexington, Kentucky. He is best known for his book The Gospel According to Dr. Seuss.
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins is a children's book, written and illustrated by Theodor Geisel under the pen name Dr. Seuss and published by Vanguard Press in 1938. Unlike the majority of Geisel's books, it is written in prose rather than rhyming and metered verse. Geisel, who was a collector of hats, got the idea for the story when he was on a commuter train from New York to New England, while sitting behind a businessman wearing a hat. The businessman was so stiff and formal that Geisel idly wondered what would happen if he took the man's hat and threw it out the window, and he artistically, albeit erroneously, concluded that the man would "simply grow a new one".
The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss is an American children's puppet television series based on characters created by Dr. Seuss, produced by The Jim Henson Company. It aired from October 13, 1996, to May 15, 1998, on Nickelodeon. It combines live puppets with digitally animated backgrounds, and in its first season, refashioning characters and themes from the original Dr. Seuss books into new stories that often retained much of the flavor of Dr. Seuss' own works.
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street is Theodor Seuss Geisel's first children's book published under the name Dr. Seuss. First published by Vanguard Press in 1937, the story follows a boy named Marco, who describes a parade of imaginary people and vehicles traveling along a road, Mulberry Street, in an elaborate fantasy story he dreams up to tell his father at the end of his walk. However, when he arrives home, he decides instead to tell his father what he actually saw—a simple horse and wagon.
Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories is a picture book collection by Theodor Seuss Geisel, published under his more commonly known pseudonym of Dr. Seuss. It was first released by Random House Books on April 12, 1958, and is written in Seuss's trademark style, using a type of meter called anapestic tetrameter. Though it contains three short stories, it is mostly known for its first story, "Yertle the Turtle", in which the eponymous Yertle, king of the pond, stands on his subjects in an attempt to reach higher than the Moon—until the bottom turtle burps and he falls into the mud, ending his rule.
Mo Willems is an American writer, animator, voice actor, and children's book author. His work includes creating the animated television series Sheep in the Big City for Cartoon Network, working on Sesame Street and The Off-Beats, and creating the children's book series Elephant and Piggie.
The King's Stilts is a children's book written and illustrated by Theodor Geisel, under the pen name Dr. Seuss, and first published in 1939 by Random House. Unlike many Dr. Seuss books, it is narrated in prose rather than verse.
McElligot's Pool is a children's book written and illustrated by Theodor Geisel under the pen name Dr. Seuss and published by Random House in 1947. In the story, a boy named Marco, who first appeared in Geisel's 1937 book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, imagines a wide variety of fantastic fish that could be swimming in the pond in which he is fishing. It later became one of the Seuss books featured in the Broadway musical Seussical where its story is used for the song "It's Possible".
The Lorax is a children's book written by Dr. Seuss and published in 1971. It chronicles the plight of the environment and the Lorax, the main character, who "speaks for the trees" and confronts the Once-ler, a business magnate who causes environmental destruction.
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Many Moons is an American children's picture book written by James Thurber and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin. It was published by Harcourt, Brace & Company in 1943 and won the Caldecott Medal in 1944. The book centers around a young girl, Princess Lenore, who becomes ill, and only one thing will make her better: the Moon. The book was Thurber's first picture book.
Laura Vaccaro Seeger is an American author and illustrator of children's books. She has often appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List and has won the Caldecott Honor twice, the New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Best Picture Book, the Empire State Award for "Body of Work and Contribution to Children’s Literature", the Massachusetts Reading Association Award for "Body of Work and Contribution to Children's Literature", and the Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor twice.
Bartholomew Cubbins is a fictional page, a pleasant boy, and the hero of two children's books by Dr. Seuss: The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1938) and Bartholomew and the Oobleck (1949). Cubbins also appears in "King Grimalken and the Wishbones", the first of Seuss's so-called "lost stories" that were only published in magazines. Besides the three printed stories about him—and the stage adaptations of both books—Bartholomew Cubbins also appears as a character in the TV show The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss. Seuss's only film, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T., has a main character named Bartholomew Collins who is based on Cubbins, and, like his namesake, is a young boy who is wiser than the adults around him.
The Stray Dog is a 2000 children's picture book by Marc Simont, the recipient of the Caldecott Honor in 2001. Published by Harper Collins Publishers, this was Simont's second Caldecott Honor, after The Happy Day by Ruth Krauss in 1950.
Molly Leach is an American graphic designer best known for her award-winning children's books.