Rabbit Ears Book Blog: [BOOK REVIEW] Great Day for Up by Dr. Seuss

Friday, July 13, 2018

[BOOK REVIEW] Great Day for Up by Dr. Seuss

Title: Great Day for Up

Author: Dr. Seuss

Artist: Quentin Blake

Genre: Humor / Inspiration / Children's

Year Published: 1974

Year Read:  1992 (Re Read: 2018)

Publisher:  Beginner Books

Source:  Purchased

Content Rating:  Ages 3+ (Nothing Objectionable)

Buy on: Amazon // Book Depository

Now, I have been reading Dr. Seuss’ books for DECADES now and I think that I have almost read all of the books that were written by Dr. Seuss (told you I have been reading his books for DECADES)! This also includes the books that Dr. Seuss wrote, but did not illustrate as there were some other artists that illustrated Dr. Seuss’ works, such as Lane Smith’s artwork in Dr. Seuss’ book “Hooray For Diffendoofer Day!” “Great Day for Up” is another book that was written by Dr. Seuss, but has artwork by Quentin Blake, who was well known for his artwork in Roald Dahl’s children’s books and it was quite an interesting read!

This book is basically about the narrator encouraging everyone around the world to get up in the morning and approach a new day with a smile on their faces!

Dr. Seuss had done a great job at writing this book as the verses are short, creative and silly and I often found myself giggling at the crazy verses about the people in the book getting up in the morning, such as this cute little verse:

“Up, whales!

Up, snails!

Up, rooster!

Hen!

Up!

Girls and women!

Boys and men!”

I also liked the fact that this book is similar to Dr. Seuss’ other work “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” as it is another book that reinforces positivity for yourself and that you should get up and go out into the world to do the things that you really want to do. I also loved the ending of this book as it was probably the most hilarious moment in the book and I definitely recommend that you read the ending for yourselves to see what I mean! I must admit that I do find Quentin Blake’s artwork to be adorable to look at in this book as all the characters are rendered in a slightly scratchy look and look a bit exaggerated with their expressions, which is something I have always enjoyed about Quentin Blake’s artwork. I also enjoyed seeing the images of the various characters jumping around excitedly at the approaching new day upon them.

The reason why I gave this book a four-star rating was because even though I thought that Quentin Blake’s artwork was cute, I personally think that it looked a bit out of place in a Dr. Seuss book, even though I was alright with Lane Smith’s artwork in “Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!” I guess I was so used to Dr. Seuss doing the artwork for his own books that seeing another artist do the artwork for his books kind of threw me off a bit.

Overall, “Great Day for Up” is a truly cute book about getting up in the mornings to approach a new day ahead of you that children will definitely be inspired by! I would recommend this book to children ages three and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book.