[BOOK REVIEW] Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? by Dr. Seuss

Title:  Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?

Author:  Dr. Seuss

Genre:  Surrealism / Life / Humor

Year Published: 1973

Year Read:  2014

Publisher: Random House

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 4+ (Nothing Objectionable) 

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

Now, I have read many popular children’s books written by none other than Dr. Seuss, but I was surprised to have stumble upon this classic called “Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?”  Out of all of the Dr. Seuss books I had read over the years, this was the one that I have never even heard of before and I was interested in reading this book and see if it holds up to Dr. Seuss’ other great works.  Well, it turns out that it DOES measure up to Dr. Seuss’ other great works and I was quite pleased with the results of this book!

The book starts off with a young boy meeting up with an old man in the middle of the Desert of Drize and the old man starts singing a song to the boy about how there are more people less fortunate than he is and how he is lucky to be himself.  One of my favorite passages in this book included:

“And suppose that you lived in that forest in France,

Where the average young person just hasn’t a chance

To escape from the perilous pants-eating-plants!

But your pants are safe!  You’re a fortunate guy.

And you ought to be shouting, “How lucky am I!”

Dr. Seuss has done it again with his creative lyrical proses, along with providing a deep message for the readers to relate to.  I loved the fact that Dr. Seuss is narrating a story about how the boy should be lucky to be himself when there are other people out there that have worse lives than he does and it was pretty interesting in seeing the lives of other people and how hard their lives can get with whatever jobs they have to deal with.  I think it brings the real world message about how life can get really tough for people, but as long as you stay as yourself, you will always be lucky in getting through life, which I think is a pretty positive message for both children and adults.  Dr. Seuss’ artwork is as usual creative and hilarious to look at, especially of the images of the all the different places that Dr. Seuss shows us such as the spooky Kaverns of Krock, which look like dark building arcs that bend all over the place.

For anyone who is not used to Dr. Seuss’ usual way with tongue twisters in his books, there are many paragraphs in this book where the wording gets a little crazy and it might be difficult for smaller children to read through.  Parents might want to read this book with their children, so that they could not only help their children understand the wording in this book, but also let them have some fun with pronouncing the imaginative words in this book.

Overall, “Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?” is a truly brilliant and memorable book about the importance of being satisfied with what you have that fans of Dr. Seuss should definitely pick up!