Title   Synopsis   Notes   Original publication year  
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street Marco watches the sight and sounds of people and vehicles traveling along Mulberry Street and dreams up an elaborate story to tell to his father at the end of his walk. 1937
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins In the kingdom of Didd, King Derwin is riding through a street past Bartholomew Cubbins, a poor boy in the market. Bartholomew removes his hat, according to the laws, but another hat mysteriously appears; when he attempts to remove this one too, another one appears again, and this continues, even as he removes more and more hats, each growing in extravagance and beauty. 1938
The King's Stilts The King's Stilts tells the story of King Birtram of Binn, who dedicates himself to safeguarding his kingdom, which lives in a precarious existence. It is surrounded by water, which is held back from flooding the land by a ring of dike trees, which are in turn subject to attack from flocks of nizzards. To protect the kingdom, a legion of Patrol Cats is organized to keep the nizzards at bay, and King Bertram sees to their care personally. 1939
The Seven Lady Godivas Not one of the seven Godiva sisters ever wears clothing. 1939
Horton Hatches the Egg An elephant named Horton is convinced by an irresponsible bird named Mayzie to sit on her egg while she takes a short "break", which proves to last for months. 1940
McElligot's Pool A boy named Marco is ridiculed for fishing in a small, polluted pool, and tries to justify himself by imagining the fish he might catch. It is one of the few books by Geisel to utilize paintings as the medium for its illustrations, rather than his common use of pen and ink. Caldecott Honor Book 1947
Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose Thidwick, a moose who lives in a herd "about sixty or more" , accepts a bug living on his antlers for free, who tells a spider of the free housing, and both accept a "Zinn-a-zu" bird. 1948
Bartholomew and the Oobleck Bartholomew must rescue his kingdom from a sticky substance called oobleck. The book is a sequel to The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins. Caldecott Honor Book 1949
If I Ran the Zoo Gerald McGrew visits a zoo and finds that the animals are "not good enough" and describes he would run the zoo. He would let all of the current animals free and find new, more bizarre and exotic ones. Caldecott Honor Book 1950
Scrambled Eggs Super! A young boy named Peter T. Hooper spins a tale of an incredible meal he created by harvesting the eggs of fantastically exotic birds. 1953
Horton Hears a Who! Horton the Elephant of the Jungle of Nool hears a small speck of dust talking to him. The speck of dust is actually a tiny planet, home to a city called ‘‘Who-ville’’, inhabited by microscopic-sized inhabitants known as Whos and led by a character known as the mayor. Also a featured length CGI film. 1954
On Beyond Zebra! The young narrator, not content with the confines of the ordinary alphabet, invents additional letters beyond Z, with a fantastic creature corresponding to each new letter. 1955
If I Ran the Circus Behind Mr. Sneelock's ramshackle store, there's an empty lot. Little Morris McGurk is convinced that if he could just clear out the rusty cans, the dead tree, and the old cars, nothing would prevent him from using the lot for the amazing, world-beating, Circus McGurkus. 1956
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Grinch, a bitter, cave-dwelling, cat-like creature with a heart "two sizes too small," tries to steal everything related to Christmas my impersonating Santa Claus. Eventually he realizes he has a heart for christmas after all. Also a featured length film 1957
The Cat in the Hat The Cat in the Hat brings his companions, Thing One and Thing Two, to a household of two young children one rainy day. Exotic and exuberant forms of chaos ensue while the children wonder how they are going to explain what happens to their mother. Also a featured length film 1957
The Cat in the Hat Comes Back The Cat in the Hat returns and while he leaves Thing One and Thing Two at home, he does bring along Little Cat A nested inside his hat. Little Cat A doffs his hat to reveal Little Cat B, who in turn reveals C, and so on down to the microscopic Little Cat Z. Together they try to get rid of a pink ring which has spread from the bathtub to the dress, the wall some shoes, and finally out in the snow where they have to work really hard to get rid of it. 1958
Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories Consists of three stories:
  • "Yertle the Turtle": Unsatisfied with the stone that serves as his throne, the king turtle he commands the other turtles to stack themselves beneath him so that he can see further and expand his kingdom.
  • "Gertrude McFuzz"- The "girl-bird" Gertrude McFuzz, has a small, plain tail and envies Lolla-Lee-Lou, who has two tail feathers.
  • "The Big Brag"- A rabbit and a bear, both boast that they are the "best of the beasts", because of the range of their hearing and smelling abilities, respectively.
 1958
Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday to You!" deals with a fantastic land, called Katroo, where the Birthday Bird throws everyone an amazing party on their special day. 1959
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish A simple rhyming book for learner readers, that has a freewheeling plot about a boy and a girl, and the many amazing creatures they have for friends and pets. 1960
Green Eggs and Ham Sam constantly badgers the an unnamed character to try green eggs and ham. The unnamed character refuses to taste the dish, insisting that he would not like it. 1960
The Sneetches and Other Stories Consists of four stories:
  • "The Sneetches": a "fix-it-up chappie" named Sylvester McMonkey McBean appears, he offers the Sneetches without stars a chance to have them by going through his Star-On machine because the star bellied sneetches are being prejudice to the plain bellied sneetches. Shows the reader that racism is not the way to go.
  • "The Zax": A North-going Zax and a South-going Zax meet face to face in the Prairie of Prax. They refuse to move out of the way for one another and end up staying there until a highway is built. Teaches the value of compromise.
  • "Too Many Daves": A mother, Mrs. McCave, who named all 23 of her sons Dave and has trouble telling them apart.
  • "What Was I Scared Of?": The tale of a character who repeatedly meets up with an empty pair of pale-green pants and has to learn to accept them.
 1961
Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book A small bug yawn spreads contagiously and though various creatures, including the Foona Lagoona Baboona, the Collaspable Frink, the Chippendale Mupp, The Oft, and the Krandles. 1962
Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book! A alphabet book which features many strange creatures. 1963
Hop on Pop Hop on Pop provides very simple rhymes to help beginner reading, such as a character named Pat who sits on a hat, a cat and a bat but must not sit on that which happens to be a cactus. Shows a variety of characters and teaches kids sentence composition. 1963
Fox in Socks Fox and his partner Mr. Knox, converse almost entirely in densely rhyming tongue-twisters which gets on Mr Knox's nerves. 1965
I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew A Tale of a young person who discovers the "troubles" of life and wishes to escape them. 1965
The Cat in the Hat Song Book A book exploring a wide variety of Dr. Seuss songs. 1967
The Foot Book About why one should not judge any one because of what they look like or in this case their feet. 1968
I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! and Other Stories The title story concerns a boy who brags that he can fight 30 tigers and win. He makes excuse after excuse, finally disqualifying all the tigers until he must fight no tigers at all. The illustrations are notable for their use of gauche and brush strokes rather than the usual pen and ink. Others stories include "King Looie Katz", another warning against hierarchical society advocating self-reliance, and "The Glunk That Got Thunk" about the power of run-away imagination. 1969
My Book about ME This book is deliberately incomplete: There are blanks on every page where the reader is meant to fill in answers specific to him or her. 1970
I Can Draw It Myself This book is a coloring book featuring rhyming instructions to help children complete various pictures, culminating in a challenge to the child to draw his or her own "Big Something." The full title of the book is I Can Draw It Myself by Me, Myself. 1970
Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?: Dr. Seuss's Book of Wonderful Noises! The book follows the sounds "Mr. Brown" can make, such as a cow's "moo", a frying pan's "sizzle", and a hippo's "grum". The book was written so children would be able to learn about onomatopoeia and sounds that children hear every day. 1970
The Lorax The Lorax chronicles the plight of the environment and the Lorax (a mossy, bossy man-like creature resembling an emperor tamarin), who speaks for the trees against the greedy Once-ler. A featured length CGI film based on the book is planned for 2012 1971
Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now! Marvin K. Mooney is asked to leave in many ways. 1972
Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? This books talks about the litany of terrible predicaments which could befall a person, with the repeated admonishment that "you're really quite lucky". 1973
The Shape of Me and Other Stuff This book explores the adventures of two kids and their journey to learn about all the shapes and sizes that make up our world. 1973
There's a Wocket in My Pocket! A little boy talks about what strange creatures live in his house, such as the yeps on the steps, the nooth grush on his toothbrush, the yottle in the bottle and the jertain in the curtain. 1974
Great Day for Up! Every new day starts a new adventure. 1974
Oh, the Thinks You Can Think! About the many amazing 'thinks' you can think and the endless possibilities and dreams that imagination can create. 1975
The Cat's Quizzer The Cat in the Hat asks many, sometimes ridiculous, questions to the reader. 1976
I Can Read with My Eyes Shut! Cat in the Hat shows a Young Cat the fun he can get out of reading. Also shows the reader that reading is a useful tool to acquire knowledge. 1978
Oh Say Can You Say? A collection of 25 tongue-twisters such as "Oh my brothers! Oh my sisters! These are Terrible Tongue Twisters!" 1979
Hunches in Bunches A boy is approached by numerous strange creatures with enormous gloved hats on their heads. Each "hunch" points out a different possible course of action with some even contradicting themselves. 1982
The Butter Battle Book The conflict between the Yooks and the Zooks, leads to an arms race, each competing to make bigger and better weapons to outdo the other, which results in the threat of mutual assured destruction. Shows the reader that war can just end up in a big never ending circle where everyone is a loser. 1984
You're Only Old Once! : A Book for Obsolete Children An old man's journeys through a clinic and sees the inefficiency of clinics. 1986
I Am NOT Going to Get Up Today! A lazy boy decides to stay in bed despite media coverage and the arrival of the U.S. Marines. 1987
Oh, the Places You'll Go! The last book published before Dr. Seuss' death, about life and its challenges. 1990