The Nerve!

Well I am in shock. Go, Dog. Go! is not written by Dr. Seuss. It was written by some poser named P.D. Eastman. Ananda and I were sitting around reading Hand, Hand, Finger, Thumb which I also thought was a Seuss book. Why did I assume this? Because of the giant Cat In the Hat logo in the upper right corner of the front cover and the repeated references to the good doctor on the back cover of the book. Upon closer inspection (Ananda likes to read the copyright information almost as much as I do!) I saw that this is an I Can Read book. It's like a whole series of Seuss-like books that are not quite medical miracles, but come close. Hand, Hand, Finger, Thumb was really not up to par, but Go, Dog. Go! has been a lifelong favorite of mine. I can remember Sami reading it to me when I was wee. In my mind, it is on equal footing with One Fish et al.

How can the publisher fool readers so? How can they just stick that cat in the corner and make parents and loving relatives think they are purchasing official Seuss-endorsed titles when they are just other rhyming books with drawings by a person who may or may not be the Seuss illustrator?? I feel robbed. I feel as cheated as when I discovered that a man I worked with at Pearson (Wil Mara) is one of the current authors of The Boxcar Children. Gertrude Chandler Warner kicked the bucket eons ago and they hire people off the street to continue the series. Benny has been taken over by strangers!!! The same thing is going on with The Hardy Boys. Probably Nancy Drew as well.

What lesson does this teach me, an aspiring author? I better hurry up and get all my ideas published while I'm alive because people are going to take them over when I am gone.