Green Eggs and Ham

What Hacker News says

1. sloakenFeb 2023
   We raised out kids on mostly Dr Seuss. In particular I remember Go Dogs Go and Green Eggs and ham being their favorites... or was it my favorite?

   The part they liked the most was my being next to them reading the books, each day. I would just ask them to choose a book, and off we went.

   Funny thing is one day my son started to read the book himself without opening the book. I was shocked he had pretty much memorized the first half. Turns out that is normal and a good thing.

   As they got older, before getting a device, they would always bring a book into the car when we drove anywhere.

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2. sdwrJan 2023
   The ones that have stood the test of time are masterpieces of storytelling. They shine insight into a facet of life. They have a strong throughline, a message without moralizing. The best ones ground an experience to make it tangible to parent and child.

   Where the Wild Things Are - a fever dream about rebellion and unrealized sexuality, hero's journey into the latent world and back.

   Green Eggs and Ham - picky eating works on its own, or can stand in for just about any other unpleasant experience. The repetition mirrors the real-life experience of getting used to something you don't like.

   Can't remember the name, about fuzzy little monkey people living in a hut? - really cozy, about the warmth and safety of being a cuddled-up tiny person without worry.

   There's no throughline in this one. The prickly porcupine stands in for a stressed mom. The fairy stands in for a child who messes up the kitchen. The solution is play all day and leave the kitchen dirty? Doesn't hold together.

   I'd take out the filler "journey" bit, add in some conflict between the mom and kid, and make the ending more realistic (fairy uses magic to make icing for the cake?). That might bring it up to library-filler tier book.

   To me, the art looks really impressive though. Again, no throughline - I'd expect a progression that goes from lonely porcupine -> in the wilderness -> sharing the stage -> back at home but happy

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3. AlchemistCampSep 2022
   I’ve read Hop on Pop, Green Eggs and Ham and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish at least 50 times each. As a kid, I really enjoyed the rhyming, the zany drawings and some of the fantastic creatures like the wump (a 7+ hump camel) and the yink (that likes to wink and drink pink ink).

   I read The Wizard of Oz at least 5 times and the whole 12 books series three times. I read several Choose your own adventure books dozens of times (I particularly liked, Journey to the Year 3000), and the full set of Death Gate Cycle three times plus parts of a fourth in the Chinese translation. There were probably several Zelazny books and some of Anne Rice’s vampire books I made it through three times as well. All of these books were world-expanding or exploring ideas that were new to me in some way.

   I definitely tended to do a lot more rereading as a kid and even as a teenager than as an adult.

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4. jakzurrSep 2022
   I'd forgotten, but Green Eggs and Ham and several others were my favorites to read to my younger brothers and sisters.
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5. tmalyApr 2021
   My daughter loved all types of books when she was younger.

   My son, who will be 3 in July, seems to only like books that rhythm or have some type of pattern.

   Here are some he likes:

   Enough Inigo Enough https://www.amazon.com/Enough-Inigo-Gentle-Revolution/dp/075...

   Good Night Moon https://www.amazon.com/Goodnight-Moon-Margaret-Wise-Brown/dp...

   Little Blue Truck https://www.amazon.com/Little-Blue-Truck-board-book/dp/05445...

   Green Eggs and Ham https://www.amazon.com/Green-Eggs-Ham-Dr-Seuss/dp/0394800168

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6. eric4smithMar 2021
   A bit off-topic, but I use Green Eggs and Ham to help teach my friends English here in Asia.

   It works pretty well, since there is quite a limited vocabulary. And it's pretty magical! I can have someone reading aloud from the book quite fluently, with extremely limited english skills, after only a few hours.

   The other part is, because of the superior illustration skills of the author, people quickly understand the difference between things like "here" and "there".

   Because of the repetition of words, they quickly memorize them permanently.

   We take those things for granted, and I'm not sure if that was the Doctor's intent, but gosh-darned it, it is so effective for teaching adults to read English.

   I wish there were more books like that.

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