Dr. Suess Had a Thing For Hats

Did you know that Dr. Seuss did not win the Caldecott or Newbery Award for any of his books?  He did receive honorary award in the Caldecott for a few but never first prize.  He did win the Pulitzer prize in the 80's for his achievements, in which I do believe is very well deserved.

I love Dr. Seuss books.  If there is a series out there that can spark a child's imagination in the craziest of manner, it's these.  Though, to be critical, I would have to say that this find is probably one of my least favorite of his career.  

The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins

I guess cause it's not in his usual rhyming style which I love. The story is about a boy who has the possibility of being executed because he has an endless amount of hats on his head and can't take it off for the king.  So the penalty of death is there, so make sure you know that before reading it to your child.  It does end on a good note, though.  Seuss came up with the story when he was on a train.  A man was sitting near him and Seuss thought he was an uptight businessman so he wanted to take his hat and throw it out the window, but thought that he'd grow another one right after anyways because he was so "stuffy".   

I found this book at Deseret Industries, again.  I think this one cost me .50.  Probably because some child,  :-/  ,  scribbled all over the cover in crayon.  I was able to get most of it off but, IIIII can still see it.  It haunts me.....ugh.  Never put a crayon and a book (especially a Dr. Suess book) in the same room.  

Okay, let's get to it.      

This was an ex-library book, actually, it was made for libraries.  It has a cloth cover and the binding was premade with the library coding.  

Since there are so many 500 Hats books out there, I had to google this one with certain keywords.  

As you can see in the picture, this version was a special edition made by a different publisher E. M. Hale and Company, so I can't really go into how to tell first editions with this version.  There is no date listed anywhere in the book but I suspect it is from the late 50's.  Where you see the summary of Dr. Suess' "about" section, the last thing on there was he received an honorary degree in 1955.  

I did locate someone who claims to have the same book, though they did not have a picture, they listed the same features as this one.  And I was glad to hear that this book is worth around $150 depending on it's condition.  

Aaaahhhh......  yes, Dr. Seuss....   you made me very happy, even when this book was not top on my list.

Anyone else have this book or maybe give me some comments about what you think about the story?  Why did you like it?  Maybe I'm missing moral of the story.