New Dr. Seuss Book Coming in July from Original Manuscript
by Chris Jennewein
A new Dr. Seuss book will be published later this year from an original manuscript and accompanying sketches discovered in the La Jolla home of the famed author and illustrator.
Random House and the trustees of Theodore Geisels’ work announced Wednesday that What Pet Should I Get? will be published on July 28.
The book captures the excitement of a classic childhood moment — choosing a pet — and features the brother and sister characters that Dr. Seuss introduced in One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.
The text and illustrations for the book were found nearly complete. Geisel traditionally completed his black-and-white line art illustrations first, with color to be filled in later.
A box filled with pages of text and sketches was found shortly after his death in 1991 when his widow Audrey Geisel was remodeling her home. At that time it was set aside with other of Ted’s materials. It was rediscovered in the fall of 2013.
At least two more books will be published from the materials discovered, with titles and publication dates to be announced.
“While undeniably special, it is not surprising to me that we found this because Ted always worked on multiple projects and started new things all the time—he was constantly writing and drawing and coming up with ideas for new stories,” said Audrey Geisel. “It is especially heartwarming for me as this year also marks twenty-five years since the publication of the last book of Ted’s career, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!“
The discovered materials will be kept at UC San Diego, where the Dr. Seuss Collection is housed within the Geisel Library.
Chris Jennewein is Editor of The Times of San Diego which, along with The Moderate Voice, belongs to the San Diego Online News Association. This article is reprinted from that website.