Some of my earliest childhood memories include listening to the rhymes of Dr. Seuss. I was the oldest child in my family, and my mother had plenty of time to read to me. And the books that I remember more than any others were written by Dr. Suess.

How could any other book compare to the colorful, wild worlds that Dr. Suess took me and the rhyming cadences of his words. And tricky devil that he was, Dr. Suess managed to tuck in a love of reading, art, and moral lessons in his books, that I breathed in with the words that I read.

"From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere."

I still to this day, often quote Dr. Seuss. I just referenced Peter T. Hooper the other day in my blog. And last night, I reminded my husband that "a person's a person no matter how small," the lesson learned from Horton the Elephant.

"A person's a person, no matter how small."

I am and have been since my childhood, an avid reader. I do not know how much of that was influenced by reading Dr. Seuss books, but I do know that Theodore Geisel instilled his love of words, and imagination into his books so well that they have inspired many children and adults over the long history of his work. His books are written so well, and illustrated so cleverly, that they are timeless. They are just as relevant today, as when they were originally written and published.

I am Jewish, and so I did not read Green Eggs and Ham or The Grinch That Stole Christmas as a child. Many children read those books first because of the silly rhyming of Green Eggs and Ham, and the holiday lesson of The Grinch That Stole Christmas.

"Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn't come from a store."

But I connected with many of the other books by Dr. Seuss, including Bartholomew and the Oobleck (what child does not love to say OOBLECK), King's Stilts, and On Beyond Zebra. Dr. Seuss's characters went to great lengths to pursue their goals, or achieve their dreams.

Dr. Seuss taught me that there was an entire alphabet beyond the letter Z. And if that existed, who knew what else was out there.

"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities. "

Teaching children to use their imagination is a skill that can be taught. Imagination drives innovation, so it is not something to take lightly. Putting a Dr. Seuss book in the hand of any child will enrich his life, and bring a smile to his face, because how can you get through any of Dr. Seuss' books without laughing at the silly antics, and colorful illustrations of the world the characters inhabit.

Dr. Seuss is proof that it only takes one man to influence millions. His books have spanned the globe, and have been passed from one generation to another. In my family, after we grew out of them, they went to my cousin for her children, and then they passed back to me for my children. Now my sister has them for her two children.

"How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?"

As an adult I still love both the wisdom and the wit of the man who found a creative and fun way to teach all of us important life lessons.

As a mother, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to share the wonder of the imagination with my children. And as an artist, I am still drawn to Dr. Seuss' fantastical art.

Besides the art that any reader of Dr. Seuss books has seen, Dr. Seuss also created other sculptures and paintings that have been collected into an exhibit called The Art of Dr. Seuss.  They are familiar in a way, filled with creatures like those that walk in his books, but with many differences in color, and maybe even more fantastical than the art in his books.

His "secret art" shows us more of the complexity of the man called Dr. Seuss.  Now highly coveted, his art was criticized highly during much of his life.

"Why were these works so important to us? Perhaps because Dr. Seuss accepted for a fact our own youthful artistic openness.  Every page was a new and stimulating visual adventure with an endless variety of amusing creatures and expressionistic sets.  Like his stories, his text illustrations were a poke in the eye of literary and artistic convention."~San Diego Museum of Art, Steven Brezzo, Director. (1987)