From the November/December 2000 issue of The Horn Book Magazine

Future Classics

ince I am primarily a novelist, one might suppose I would choose from the veritable galaxy of star-bright twentieth-century novels to place into the hand of the 2101 child. Truly, there are many of them. But surely our future child will not be reading those novels unless he or she has already become a reader.
Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat is brilliantly written and drawn, full of enormous energy, funny and silly (not the same), even as it is accessible to a just-starting reader. It is all those things, and, better yet, it is luminously transgressive.

Think of all the rules that we teach and impose upon young people. As a parent I’ve done it myself. Then think of all those things that happen in The Cat in the Hat: the very odd stranger in the house, the being out of control, the breaking of things, the out-and-out naughty behavior, the wildness, the lack of remorse, and oh! above and beyond, the fun of it all!

As we move — or so it would appear — to global standardization, conformity, plus plain old dull sameness, an outrageous role model like the Cat in the Hat is exactly what the future child will require to restore some chaotic balance. That the child will get this from reading a book is an experience that will not only enrich the child but do much for the world of book reading, too. I hope.

—Avi