Horton and the Kwuggerbug: Lost Stories of Dr. Seuss

Cover artwork for Horton and the Kwuggerbug

Beloved author Dr. Seuss is still enchanting young readers with the release of Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories.

The new children’s book contains four lost stories that were originally published in Redbook magazine during the 1950s.

Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories by Dr. Seuss

The newly republished lost stories in the collection include:

  • Horton and the Kwuggerbug

Faithful Horton is duped into helping the manipulative Kwuggerbug. Once he give his word, he never goes back. After all, a “deal is a deal.”

  • Marco Comes Late

When an inventive little boy Marco arrives to school late, he learns the difference between an imaginative story and outright lie. Seuss fans will remember the character Marco from stories “Mulberry Street” and “McElligot’s Pool”.

  • How Officer Pat Saved the Whole Town

Returning to Mulberry Street, we meet Officer Pat whose keen eyes help rescue the town from obliteration.

  • The Hoobub and the Grinch

The Grinch is back to his sneaky ways, persuading the good guy Hoobub buy a worthless piece of green string. “And I’m sorry to say that Grinches sell Hoobubs such things everyday.”

This second collection of stories follows the 2011 release of the previous volume, The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories, which was a New York Times best-seller.

Collage Artwork of Dr Seuss
Photo Alice Hui|CC

Fun Facts about Theodor Geisel

To celebrate the new collection, here are a few fun facts about Theodor Geisl:

1. Dr. Seuss was an ad man.

He worked on ad campaigns for Standard Oil’s Flit bug spray (catchphrase: “Quick, Henry, the Flit!”) and the Narragansett Brewing Company and Hankey Bannister Scotch, among others.

2. Dr. Seuss was a cartoonist.

He wrote parodies and political cartoons for publications like Life magazine and Vanity Fair.

He worked with famed director Frank Capra in Hollywood making war propaganda films and informational cartoons for soldiers during WWII.

3. Dr. Seuss often used few words.

Editor William Spaulding at Houghton Mifflin challenged Dr. Seuss to write a children’s book using only a few hundred basic words. The words were chosen from a “Just Know” vocabulary list for 6- and 7-year-olds.

The result: “The Cat in the Hat” has only 237 vocabulary words, and “Green Eggs and Ham” uses only 50!

His later works used a much broader vocabulary because he believed even young children could understand complex words and concepts.
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4. Dr. Seuss won an Academy Award.

Dr. Seuss’s Gerald McBoing-Boing cartoon was an Oscar-winning animated short film in 1951.

5. Dr. Seuss name is mispronounced.

Theodor Seuss Geisel used his mother’s maiden name, and his middle, “Seuss” which was actually pronounced “Zoice” by the family, and by Dr. Seuss himself ……it rhymes with Voice!

6. Dr. Seuss wasn’t really a doctor.

Theodor Geisel graduated from Dartmouth and then entered a graduate program in literature from Oxford which he never completed. He did receive his first honorary doctorate from Dartmouth in 1955, followed by several other honorary degrees.

Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2 1904, and he died in 1951.  Dr. Seuss’s Birthday on March 2 is one of the most celebrated days in children’s literacy.  Children of all-ages can rediscover the magic of Seuss through the new lost collection releases. Happy Reading!
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