I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!
by
Dr. Seuss, Jack Prelutsky
concept book, humor in Hardcover edition that was published by Knopf Books for Young Readers on April 20, 1998 and has 64 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Illustrator: Lane Smith
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Sneetches and Other Stories, Horton Hatches the Egg & Horton Hears a Who!, Green Eggs and Ham, The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories, The Lorax, Daisy-Head Mayzie, Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose, The King's Stilts, Scrambled Eggs Super!, Bartholomew and the Oobleck, Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories, You're Only Old Once!, My Many Colored Days, McElligot's Pool, If I Ran the Circus, Sleep Book, I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! and Other Stories, I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
Oh, no! It’s a terrible thing as Dr. Seuss takes a look at conformity versus freedom! Dr. Seuss created Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!, and Jack Prelutsky finished this story while Lane Smith did the illustrations. A picture book for children ages 4–8.
My Take
The kids will love this! There are lots of opportunities for laughing and coming up with ideas for other kinds of classes besides the ones that Miss Bobble and Miss Fribble teach…among others. There’s Miss Clotte’s overzealousness and Mr. Plunger’s inventiveness. Yep, lots of opportunities to be imaginative with the kids!
It’s also a chance for the kids to imagine what classes in smelling, tasting, and listening would teach. A chance for parents to come up with unique ideas to get the kids to do what you want them to and good luck with that one!
I do love the colors, they’re so softly funky with weird angles to buildings and people and lots of stripes and polka dots and swirlies and whirlies. Smith was definitely influenced by the modern art of his day, lol. I swear, you could spend one day for each spread of pages, stretching the imagination, exploring the bits floating throughout.
The blurb calls it “a joyous ode to individuality, starring an unsinkable teacher named Miss Bonkers and quirky little Diffendoofer School, which must prove it has taught its students how to think.”
The individuality is more implied and only becomes obvious [to me!] when Flobbertown comes up.
About half the book (at the back) is devoted to explaining how Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! came to be. It includes Seuss’ original drawings, which are very Seuss-like. Quite different from the characters Smith did, and I think I like Smith’s better??! I suspect it’s the artist side in me, *laughing*.
The names…the names…lol… Oh, yeah, it’s a buy for sure!
The Story
Oh, Diffendoofer is the school I’d choose where learning is fun, and it’s learning to think. But then the day comes, the day Mr. Lowe has been dreading.
Worried and fretting, he doesn’t want Diffendoofer School to close!
The Characters
Diffendoofer School is…
…on the corner of Dinkzoober and Dinkzott in Dinkerville. The teachers include the Misses Bobble, Wobble, Fribble, Quibble, Twining, Vining, and Bonkers (who’s different-er than the rest). The sad Mr. Lowe is the worried principal. Miss Clotte is the nurse. Mr. Plunger is the custodian, that’s janitor to you and I. Mr. Fox is the music teacher while Mr. Beeze teaches art. Mr. Katz teaches science with his robotic rats. As the gym teacher, Mr. Bear is quite strong. And Miss Loon is quite the opposite of the usual librarian. The three McMunches do the cooking. I don’t think the Board of Health would be too happy about all that hair, lol.
The Cover and Title
The cover has a heavy cream color with large darker cream polka dots. The author’s name is large in a deep blue while the title is in rust and Miss Bonkers is on the cover in her signature orange and speckled beige striped dress and black high-top shoes. I’d be careful of her mouth though, it’s either a zipper or short fangs!
The title is so perfect. It’s definitely a Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! as the Diffendoofer students save the day.
