Today is Dr. Seuss’s birthday. Did you know that? Probably not. This is a holiday that is primarily for teachers and students. In the schools, this is a pretty big deal. Dr. Seuss helped to bring whimsy and lightness to the world of children’s literature and so we celebrate, each year on March 2nd, by dressing up as our favorite storybook characters and heading off to school for a magical day of reading!

This year Gigi went as Mary Ingalls – not to be confused with Laura Ingalls Wilder. Mary has blonds hair, and that makes all of the difference. For the past two years, as summer has rolled around and other folks are blasting their tunes through open car windows, we Littlejohns have blasted the Little House on the Prairie series from ours. While driving around listening to the tales of a pioneer girl does not earn many cool points from some, for us it has enriched our daughter’s life with historical stories of long ago and passed on a love of a book series from mother to daughter.

I dressed as Miss Viola Swamp from Miss Nelson is Missing. In the story, Miss Nelson’s class is terrible – spitwads fly, kids yell and even *gasp* fidget! Miss Nelson goes missing, and in her place is the dreaded, terrible Viola Swamp who gives out lots of math homework and never has story time. In the end, the beloved Miss Nelson returns to find her class exceptionally well behaved and everything in order. When I am Viola Swamp I act like her for the first 15-20 minutes and my students just don’t know how to respond. Some laugh nervously, others just sit, stunned into silence. After they meet the Swamp version of Mrs. L, they are always glad for my return. The best part is that later in the year, when my students start to get out of hand, I wear my Viola Swamp socks the next day and the very clear message is received!


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