I Can Write! A Book by Me, Myself

I Can Write! a Book by Me, Myself
with a little help from Theo LeSieg (aka Dr. Seuss) and Roy McKie
Random House, 1971

Just in case you haven't had enough of Roy McKie this month...

Similar in theme to the still-in-print Seuss/McKie classic A Book About Me, if you're a vintage buff and go searching, unsullied copies can be hard to come by. Why, you ask? Well, a child would have to be insane not to want to write in it.

I, myself, shared a copy with my two sisters, and I seem to remember repeated erasing and rewriting until someone got sassy and used a magic marker. The copy I'm scanning here is inscribed "To Paul Feuerbacher From Dwayne F. 1973" and apparently this "Paul" had impeccable handwriting for such a young buck (as evidenced above and below). Though the text is a conduit for which children can perfect their handwriting skills, it also tell a snazzy Seuss rhyming story, of course.

1
2
fish in shoe

1
2
3
fish in tree

2
3
4
in the door

yellow
red
cow in bed

...and so on and so forth, full of awesome, made all the more so by McKie's signature sillies. Though I do love much of the realistic painting and waifish pencil drawing styles that dominate the market today, there's something about simple bold colors, outlined in black that makes me giddy inside. It takes me back to an age when handwriting the words "fish in shoe" was the - ahem - hardest thing I had to do. Good times.

Also by:
Bennett Cerf's Book of Animal Riddles
The Nose Book
Summer
Mélisande
Snow
Bennett Cerf's Book of Laughs
Bennett Cerf's Book of Riddles
McElligot's Pool
Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?
Come Over to My House
Bartholomew and the Oobleck
The Lorax
Hooper Humperdink...? Not Him!

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