The Cat in the Hat

Life Magazine had recently published an article, “Why Do Students Bog Down on First R? A Local Committee Sheds Light on a National Problem: Reading,” that criticized reading primers, saying they were too boring. After that article, William Ellsworth Spaulding (the director of education at Houghton Mifflin) challenged Theodore Geisel to write a better one. He finished The Cat in the Hat 9 months later.

As of 2017, over 16 million copies have been sold. Around 500,000 copies are sold every year.

Rated PG, run time of 1h 22min, with a rating of 3.9/10 on [IMDb (where you can also find a trailer and cast information)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0312528/){:target="_blank"}. There's also a plan for [a second movie](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a848360/dr-seuss-cat-in-the-hat-animated-movie-warner-bros/ ){:target="_blank"}. ["The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That!"](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1699440/?ref_=nv_sr_2?ref_=nv_sr_2 ){:target="_blank"}" was the televised version of the book, which can still be viewed at [pbs.org](https://pbskids.org/catinthehat/video/){:target="_blank"}.