Mitten And The Cat In The Hat example essay topic

Compare and Contrast The Cat in The Hat by Dr Seuss The Mitten by Jan Brett by Kirk Jordan There are many children's books that capture the attention of children and adults. These books are often written by authors that know their audience and are able to get certain points across. Among the well-known authors, Theodor Seuss Geisel, also known as Dr. Seuss and Jan Brett have written a number of books, which are considered to be all time favorites. On March 2, 1904, Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield Massachusetts.

He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1925. In 1927, he began submitting cartoons to Life, Vanity Fair, and Liberty. For seventeen years this was how Geisel made his living. In May of 1954, Life published an article concerning illiteracy among school age children. It stated that children were having problems reading their books because they were "boring". Geisel's publisher was inspired and generated a list of four hundred words that he felt were important.

Geisel was instructed to reduce the list to two hundred and fifty words that would be on the level of a first grader. Nine months later, Geisel used two hundred and twenty of those words and wrote the book The Cat in The Hat which became an instant success. From that point forwards, Theodor Seuss Geisel was known as Dr. Seuss. Included in his cast repertoire of children's books are the Foot Book, Green Eggs and Ham, Hop on Pop, and The Bread and Butter Battle. Dr. Seuss continued to write until his death in 1991.

In 1957, The Cat in The Hat became one of Random House's best selling series for Beginner Books. It combines an engaging story with outrageous illustrations and playful sounds to in effort to teach basic reading skills. The Cat in The Hat, is about two children who have been left at home alone while their mother is out shopping. It is a rainy day and there is not much to do.

Soon after mother has left, The Cat in The Hat shows up on the doorstep. The children let him in and ciaos ensures. They engage in activities that mother would not approve of and leave a mess. The fish continuously reminds the children that should not be doing such things.

Accompanying the Cat are his two friends, Thing 1 and Thing 2, who assist in destroying the house. The fish alerts the children that mother is on her way home. The Cat is told to leave, but he returns with a cleaner and restores the house it its original condition. When mother comes in, she asks the children what they did, but they never really say. The book concludes with asking the reader if they would tell their mother what they did? The Cat in The Hat is an up-beat book that contains both a rhyme and a rhythm.

It is interactive with its audience, leaving the reader to guess what could happen next. At the end of the book, the audience of young children is left to their own devices to determine what should be the outcome. Jan Brett was born on December 1, 1949 in Hingham Massachusetts. She went to Colby Junior College from 1968-1969 and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School is 1970. Having grown up on the writings of Dr. Seuss, she writes her own books and illustrates folktales. In 1981, she published her first book Fritz and the Beautiful Horses in which she uses animals to tell the story.

Brett incorporates emotions and a hopeful message into her stories. Numerous details can be found not only in the center of the pictures, but also on the borders, which are an overflow of her thoughts. This engages the reader and gives clues as to what will be happening next. Brett wrote The Mitten, an adaptation of a Ukrainian folktale in 1986. It is the story of young boy who wants white snow colored mittens. The grandmother is concerned because she does not want him to loose them in the snow.

He begs her and promises that he will not loose them. She makes the mittens and tells him that when she sees him out the window, she will first look to make sure he is safe and second to make sure he still has the mittens. The boy goes out and looses one of the mittens. The rest of the story focuses on the mitten.

Eight animals seeking shelter from the weather come upon the mitten and try to find shelter within it. As each animal comes to the mitten, those already inside decide to make room for the new animals for one reason or another. The last animal to enter the mitten is a mouse who inadvertently sits on the bears' nose causing a sneeze, which blows all of the animals out of the mitten. The boy sees his mitten and reclaims it. Once home, his grandmother checks to make sure he is safe and then looks for the mittens. To her surprise, one of the mittens is now larger than the other.

This book is engaging. The pictures in the border offer a glimpse of which animal may be coming next. At the end of the story, the audience of children is left to wonder what they would do; would they admit to losing the mitten. There are several similarities and differences between The Cat in The Hat and The Mitten. Among the differences are the language, sentence structure, and intended audience.

The words used in The Cat in The Hat are simple, sight words. These words are very basic and common allowing the reader to be less educated. The sentence structure is extremely simple; no complexities exist in the grammar, syntax, or structure of this story. This implies that the indented audience for this story is composed of very young children who are beginning to learn the basics of reading. The Mitten, however, is composed on a little higher level.

The words are more in depth and more of a descriptive nature. The structures of the sentences are more complex than that of The Cat in The Hat. The intended audience for this book is not a new reader, but an older child who is more skilled in understanding written text. Another difference between these works is the rhythm to the writing.

The Cat in The Hat is written in a distinct rhyme and rhythm pattern. It is easy for the reader to pick up this pattern and flow with the book. The Mitten is written with flow, but the words go together in a more descriptive manner rather than a more rhyming almost musical pattern as like that with The Cat in The Hat. While there are differences between these stories, there are also some similarities. For example, both books engage their audience. The Cat in The Hat brings the child to the story by enticing them to figure out what the cat is up to and what may happen next.

The Mitten engages the reader with illustrations and subtle hints on the pages' boarders of what may happen next. Another similarity between these stories is the subject matter being addressed, that of following directions, listening to adults, and telling the truth. The mother in The Cat in The Hat, reminds the children to be good when she goes out. The grandmother in The Mitten, reminds the boy to be careful with his mittens. Both of these stories deal with listening and doing as one is told. While the events in the stories are different, both give the reader a chance to ask himself what would he do it if were he was in the situation.

This is evident through the stories conclusions. The Cat in the Hat asks the reader if he would tell his mother? The Mitten concludes with grandmother holding up the stretched mitten leaving the reader to wonder what they would do. The Mitten and The Cat in The Hat, both bring forth the same message to the young reader in their own unique style of writing. These books engage the readers and provide interactive way of reading.

The Mitten and The Cat in The Hat are still popular among educators today. Even though the books were written thirty years apart, they help in the development of reading skills and reasoning between right and wrong with young readers.