This is my favourite of all Dr. Seuss's tales. Starting with the fanfare of the dawning of independence, and the sure footedness and confidence of youth, it provides peeks at how truly wide the world is outside of the childhood home. Confidence lurches as warnings are given when things go wrong, and assurances are given both that life is not easy to turn around, and also that by virtue of digging in and keeping your chin up, it will get better. Describing with haunting accuracy the perils of an independent life, it provides both a fantastic visual and verbal feast for the young, and a telling tale for the parent reading it..This is Dr. Seuss's last story to be published.It gives the feeling even to a parent reading it to their child, of being read to by their parent. Its sage advice rings true to all who read it. The pictures and repetitive rhyme hint at the absence of boundaries and the power so first felt.The reader of maturity can identify with each stage, often recognising and relating personal episodes to the story. And this is where Dr. Seuss excels. He has not only the powerful ability to portray feelings and developing emotions into distinctive shapes, colours and words, but to make one realise that out of your own box, others are experiencing precisely the same angst throughout their lives, not only when leaving home for the first time at a young and tender age. His books are able to cross boundaries of class, gender and culture. His initial career of magazine humorist and cartoonist are evident.The whole effect is, of course, positively warm yet strengthening. I feel I must treasure this and give it to my daughter once again when she leaves home. Her imagination was captured when she was young - and I hope it will be again when it is time to go and take life by the collar herself.
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