Green Eggs and Ham
Dr. Seuss, 1960
A stubborn refusal, a relentless host, and fifty words that drum a whole argument into your head. A stubborn back-and-forth, carried by bouncy rhyme and a host who will not let the argument drop.
Feels like humor, nostalgia and dread. About freedom, identity and family.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy light verse, playful stubbornness, and jokes that build by repetition. The very repetition that makes it catchy can wear thin if you want a story with more than one running argument.
Why read it
It turns a small, funny standoff into a chant you can feel in your mouth, and the stubbornness is oddly freeing.
A page from the book
The pleasure of refusing something before you've tried it.
I would not like them here or there.I would not like them anywhere.I do not like green eggs and ham.I do not like them, Sam-I-Am. Dr. Seuss.Theodor Geisel published as Dr. Seuss; his first children's book was rejected by 27 publishers before Vanguard Press accepted it in 1937.
Books that feel like this
More by Dr. Seuss
The Lorax
Dr. Seuss, 1971
A ruined inventor tells a child how his greed stripped a forest bare, and hands him the last seed. A rhyming fable about caring before it's too late.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is Green Eggs and Ham for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy light verse, playful stubbornness, and jokes that build by repetition. The very repetition that makes it catchy can wear thin if you want a story with more than one running argument.
- What is Green Eggs and Ham like?
- A stubborn back-and-forth, carried by bouncy rhyme and a host who will not let the argument drop. Feels like humor, nostalgia and dread. About freedom, identity and family.
- What should I read after Green Eggs and Ham?
- If you liked Green Eggs and Ham, try Crying in H Mart (Michelle Zauner), Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Jeff Kinney) and Where the Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak).
A taste of the feed
The way a mother cuts meat, relearned from a stranger on YouTube.
Maangchi peeled the skin off an Asian pear with the giant knife pulled toward her, just like Mom did when she cut Fuji apples for me after school on a little red cutting board, before eating the left-over fruit from the core. Just like Mom, chopsticks in one hand, scissors in the other, cutting galbi and cold naengmyeon noodles with a specifically Korean ambidextrous precision. Skillfully stretching out the meat with her right hand and cutting it into bite-sized pieces with her left, using kitchen scissors like a warrior brandishes a weapon.
Crying in H Mart · Michelle Zauner
A letter found years later
First of all, let me get something straight: This is a JOURNAL, not a diary. I know what it says on the cover, but when Mom went out to buy this thing I SPECIFICALLY told her to get one that didn’t say “diary” on it. Great. All I need is for some jerk to catch me carrying this book around and get the wrong idea.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid · Jeff Kinney
The friend everyone counts on, and what it costs to share him.
That’s Douglas. I count on him for everything. If I was stranded on a desert island and could only take one thing, it’d be Douglas. We can share him if you want.
Where the Wild Things Are · Maurice Sendak
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