LS 5603- Genre 4 - THE BOY ON FAIRFIELD STREET

Krull, Kathleen and Johnson, Steve and Fancher, Lou. 2004. THE BOY ON FAIRFIELD STREET: HOW TED GEISEL GREW UP TO BECOME DR. SEUSS. Random House: New York.

ACCURACY
The author has written several biographies including some of the “Lives of . . .” series.
The biographies contain mostly drawn or painted illustrations. Her website is: http://www.kathleenkrull.com/. On page forty-three there are a few works listed for further reading as well as some websites. This work is a picture book biography. It introduces is early life mostly and then touches on his adult years. The majority of the book reads as a story and at the end are a few pages of mostly facts and details with dates and titles of the books.

ORGANIZATION
The book is organized sequentially from his birth until twenty-two. Then the last few pages give more detail of his adult life but it is not written in story format. There is an index of all the written works by Dr. Seuss.

DESIGN
The design of the book is appealing. Even the cover illustration tends to draw you to open the book. The illustrations are appropriate and flow with the text.

STYLE
The story holds your attention. The author is clearly motivated to share Ted Geisel’s life with the reader. The story provides just enough information to entice you to find more resources on the subject to gain more knowledge. There is just enough information provided so a young person can understand the message and not be complicated reading.

AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
Positive review Kirkus
Texas Bluebonnet Award
Utah Beehive Award
New York State Reading Association’s Charlotte Award
North Carolina Children’s Book Award
New Jersey Garden State Book Award
New Mexico Land of Enchantment Book Award

CONNECTIONS
This would be an excellent book to read on March 2nd, Ted Geisel’s birthday, on Read Across America Day. You could provide cross-curricular activities in math, spelling, reading, art, science and social studies all surrounding his books. You can even cook up some green eggs and ham!