Dreaming as We Learn Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cat

If I asked you to name a book by Dr Seuss, the odds are pretty good that this would be one of your first responses. Published in 1957, this book offers an eccentric anthropomorphic cat, with a highly recognisable hat, who creates chaos when he visits two children who have been left on their own one afternoon, despite the efforts of their pet fish to put a stop to his antics. And just when the mess seems irredeemable, he sorts it all.

It was actually written with the intent of replacing the primers then in standard use in primary schools, which contained such immortal prose as "See Dick. Dick can run. See Dick run. Run, Dick, run" repeated again for Jane, Sally and Spot their dog.

There may also have been a cat - I have tried to eliminate the details from my memory.

Answer: Lucky

This is a collection of humorous poems, recited by a wise old man to an anonymous listener who describes himself as "quite young and small for my size". It's a much more palatable way to hear the moral that parents so often repeat, "You're really quite lucky! Some people are much more...unlucky than you." And the examples certainly prove the point, however fantastical they may be.

A bit of laughter makes the message so much easier to swallow.

Answer: Moo

This introduction to onomatopoeia uses amusing situations to make children laugh while they learn to associate a range of sounds in context. It's fun for the reader, too - you get to make noises well outside the standards like a moo: there's the grum grum of a hippopotamus chewing gum and the pip of a goldfish kiss, for example.

Answer: Circus

Like 'The Cat in the Hat' (which was written immediately after 'If I Ran the Circus'), this book shows characters getting increasingly erratic in their behaviour, a theme which seems to have fascinated the author. Morris McGurk's plans for the circus he hopes to establish in the vacant lot behind Mr Sneelock's store become increasingly elaborate and unrealistic - especially as they seem to require a lot of input from the oblivious Mr Sneelock! But the illustrations make one wish they were possible (at least, that is the case for the young or young-at-heart).

Answer: Egg

This book introduces us to Horton, an elephant with a heart of gold who will appear in future books. Here, he agrees to help out a bird named Mayzie by sitting on her egg so she can take a short break from the job of hatching it. When she heads into the sunset (or more accurately, Palm Beach), Horton undergoes some serious difficulties in order to stay on the egg.

As he states, "I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful, one hundred per cent!" When the egg hatches, it somehow reveals a cross between a bird and an elephant, with whom Horton happily goes to live in the jungle.

Answer: Lick

This is the title story of a collection which also includes 'King Looie Katz and 'The Glunk That Got Thunk'. 'I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today' features the son of the Cat in the Hat, who starts by bragging of this ability, but has second thoughts when he actually comes face to face with thirty tigers.

He disqualifies the tigers for various reasons - underweight, dirty fingernails, curly hair, and so forth - until there is only one left; at this point he remembers that it is time for lunch.

Answer: Moose

Poor Thidwick is so eager to be friendly that he allows a bug to make a nest in his antlers, and then puts up with a string of friends invited to come on in by the bug. Eventually, he is forced to leave his herd, left behind because his 'guests' don't want to cross the lake for the winter.

The antler-load keeps increasing (including a 435 pound black bear!), and Thidwick cannot escape the hunters who want his head for their magnificent antlers. Then he remembers it is time for the annual shedding of the antlers, leaving all the guests behind for the hunters to collect.

Answer: Read

Well, Dr Seuss's books are all about the joy of reading, but with the eyes closed? The Cat in the Hat shows Young Cat (his son?) that it is hard work to do it, and reading is much more fun and exciting when you can see what you are reading. The book was dedicated to Theodor Geisel's ophthalmologist (eye doctor) - as someone who has recently had cataract surgery, I can empathise with the joy of clear vision!

Answer: Saw

This was the first book published by Theodor Geisel as Dr Seuss, in 1937. That is amazing to contemplate - nearly a century later this book still captures the imagination of children, with its development of ever-more-fantastic stories, resolved in the end to the simple truth.

It might have been a zebra, or an elephant, or an elephant helped by two giraffes; it actually was a horse pulling a cart (not a chariot or a cat with a brass band) along the street. None of the other elaborate scenes imagined are reported to his father in the end - but we admire his ability to imagine them.

Answer: Stole

This book was first published in 1957, and has since had film and television adaptations which resurface every year around Christmas. The Grinch's character development is reminiscent of Dickens' famous Scrooge, but this story has a much lighter touch.

The Grinch learns that Christmas is not about the externals, which he could remove from Whoville, but is about the state of mind in which everyone celebrates together.