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kathydavie's review
5.0
A standalone picture book for youngsters with dreams and thoughts of circuses.
My Take
Authors should check out the title and dedication page, if only to enjoy how Seuss laid it out. Very clever and very cute.
The colors in the images are in primary colors: red, white, yellow, and blue. As for the graphics, they’re quite simply complicated and will make you laugh. I did love the pink lemonade “container”. And yes, there are pages more of clever and fun.
Hmmm, speaking as one of those kids with “big” ideas, I’m really impressed with Morris McGurk's fantastical thoughts…as well as all those circus wagons, lol. Oh, lordy…that organ…rofl… Think of a circus with all the acts you suspect, feed ‘em steroids, and go all Seussian with some mindwarping ideas.
Better watch the kids before they take up your brooms and — not to tidy their rooms! — but to go roust-about-jousting.
Oh, man, you will absolutely adore how beautifully Seuss gets complex ideas across in his rhymes, and you can’t help but get caught up in his racing, fun rhythms.
The Story
Ah, yes, young Morris McGurk has great plans and is counting quite heavily on Sneelock’s good graces.
Whatever did poor Sneelock ever do to McGurk?
The Characters
Morris McGurk is a young lad with wonderful plans for the…
…Circus McGurkus with its horn-tooting apes who could get a gig anywhere in the world with those two or three tongues. Rolf the Walrus has marvelous balance. The Drum-Tummied Snumm is quite musical. The Remarkable Foon and his taste for pebbles from the moon. The Wily Walloo has quite the rope trick. The Hoodwink is most intriguing [to me] for his levitating hood.
I suspect the Blindfolded Bowman from Brigger-ba-Root is not going to please ol’ Sneelock. The Juggling Jott sounds more like a writer to me! There’re all those creatures in the circus parade followed later by To-an-Fro Marchers who march in those layers. The dentist’s dream is the Spotted Atrocious and so many more.
The Cover and Title
The cover has a yellow background with a light red curtain sprinkled with orange stars, overhanging it on the right. On the left are three Seussian creatures balancing one atop the other starting with a pale pink ball to pale pink balloons. The title is in white outlined in black while the author’s name is in black.
The title is Morris’s dream of If I Ran the Circus.
My Take
Authors should check out the title and dedication page, if only to enjoy how Seuss laid it out. Very clever and very cute.
The colors in the images are in primary colors: red, white, yellow, and blue. As for the graphics, they’re quite simply complicated and will make you laugh. I did love the pink lemonade “container”. And yes, there are pages more of clever and fun.
Hmmm, speaking as one of those kids with “big” ideas, I’m really impressed with Morris McGurk's fantastical thoughts…as well as all those circus wagons, lol. Oh, lordy…that organ…rofl… Think of a circus with all the acts you suspect, feed ‘em steroids, and go all Seussian with some mindwarping ideas.
Better watch the kids before they take up your brooms and — not to tidy their rooms! — but to go roust-about-jousting.
Oh, man, you will absolutely adore how beautifully Seuss gets complex ideas across in his rhymes, and you can’t help but get caught up in his racing, fun rhythms.
The Story
Ah, yes, young Morris McGurk has great plans and is counting quite heavily on Sneelock’s good graces.
Whatever did poor Sneelock ever do to McGurk?
The Characters
Morris McGurk is a young lad with wonderful plans for the…
…Circus McGurkus with its horn-tooting apes who could get a gig anywhere in the world with those two or three tongues. Rolf the Walrus has marvelous balance. The Drum-Tummied Snumm is quite musical. The Remarkable Foon and his taste for pebbles from the moon. The Wily Walloo has quite the rope trick. The Hoodwink is most intriguing [to me] for his levitating hood.
I suspect the Blindfolded Bowman from Brigger-ba-Root is not going to please ol’ Sneelock. The Juggling Jott sounds more like a writer to me! There’re all those creatures in the circus parade followed later by To-an-Fro Marchers who march in those layers. The dentist’s dream is the Spotted Atrocious and so many more.
The Cover and Title
The cover has a yellow background with a light red curtain sprinkled with orange stars, overhanging it on the right. On the left are three Seussian creatures balancing one atop the other starting with a pale pink ball to pale pink balloons. The title is in white outlined in black while the author’s name is in black.
The title is Morris’s dream of If I Ran the Circus.
natiperleggere's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
sfujii's review
3.0
This one is a major tongue twister! I think that is why she liked it so much!
A little repetitive of ideas, but overall, entertaining.
A little repetitive of ideas, but overall, entertaining.
shahrun's review
5.0
Pure magic. The spectacularly inventive prose combined with the uniquely wacky illustrations took me on a delightfully bizarre journey.
lilmatt050's review
4.0
I wanted to rate this book 5 stars so bad because I loved the illustrations and the beginning of this book but by the time I was half way done with this book I was so over it. Dr. Seuss wanted to make this Zoo bigger and chaotic but I felt like he got lost in the madness of it all. For building such a creative story, I felt like the rhyming was way too much, the usage of make believe words were overused then his other books and I got confused and lost from the story. I can see that this was a very creative book but I believe Dr. Seuss went a little overboard. In the beginning I was following this wonderful rhythm with his rhymes and by the end of it I wanted it to be over. The illustrations were beautiful and that is why I gave this 4 stars instead of less.
Little Morris McGurk is behind an empty lot of Mr. Sneelock's ramshackle store and one day he believes that if he cleans the empty lot from the cans and dead trees he can open up a circus and he would be the director of this crazy circus. He believes Mr. Sneelock will not have a problem about this circus and he will be more than willing to help and aide the circus in any which way he can. As more and more thoughts creeps into Morris McGurk imagination, the crazier the circus becomes and it gets to the point of excess. Finally at the end it was all just a day dream and the empty lot is still empty.
The illustrations were marvelous depicting this epic circus and I was very disappointed on how the overuse of make believe words can distract and lose the intention of this book. There was an entire page that every verse had 4-5 words that were make believe and didn't make sense even with the illustrations and by that point I wanted the circus to end. I felt like as the excess reached its final limits it didn't leave any room for the story to grow and for this book I believe less would have done more work.
Little Morris McGurk is behind an empty lot of Mr. Sneelock's ramshackle store and one day he believes that if he cleans the empty lot from the cans and dead trees he can open up a circus and he would be the director of this crazy circus. He believes Mr. Sneelock will not have a problem about this circus and he will be more than willing to help and aide the circus in any which way he can. As more and more thoughts creeps into Morris McGurk imagination, the crazier the circus becomes and it gets to the point of excess. Finally at the end it was all just a day dream and the empty lot is still empty.
The illustrations were marvelous depicting this epic circus and I was very disappointed on how the overuse of make believe words can distract and lose the intention of this book. There was an entire page that every verse had 4-5 words that were make believe and didn't make sense even with the illustrations and by that point I wanted the circus to end. I felt like as the excess reached its final limits it didn't leave any room for the story to grow and for this book I believe less would have done more work.
libraryrobin's review
3.0
An imaginative young boy (not unlike the one that saw the parade on Mulberry Street) describes the circus he will have once he cleans the lot behind Mr. Sneelock's grocery store. That kind gentleman will do everything from selling balloons to training exotic Seussian animals to being shot out of a cannon, and he will remain unruffled as he performs all these tasks.
Delightful illustrations and a couple of special Seuss words in the rhymes.
Delightful illustrations and a couple of special Seuss words in the rhymes.