There was plenty of quirky fun to go around as the Great Bend Public Library “Seuss”abrated the life and legacy of an iconic children’s author Saturday morning.
Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, was born March 2, 1904, and each year, and each year organizations across the country, including the GBPL, mark the occasion by holding several events throughout the month to celebrate and promote children’s literacy, now known as the “Read Across America” initiative.
Saturday morning’s come-and-go “Seussabration” was one of those occasions, said Youth Services Director Amy Mayhill.
“(The Suessabration is) intertwining literacy with different fun and games, activities and crafts,” she said. “It’s just to have a fun day to celebrate.”
She was grateful for the large turnout at, which she said is the library’s largest event since the COVID-19 shutdowns. “It’s nice to see families back out together again.”
Mayhill said the library’s celebration was designed to bring Seuss’ books to life for children and families in many fun and creative ways. Iconic characters The Cat in the Hat and Thing 1 and Thing 2 even made cameo appearances at the Saturday event, with the mischievous feline meandering from station to station mingling with guests young and old.
The children’s section of the library was set up with several different Seuss-inspired activity stations.
At “Hop on Pop,” for example, kids had the chance to indulge the urge to hop on different shapes on bubble wrap to pop the bubbles.
Kids also engaged their creative sides with several different crafts. They followed King Derwin and Bartholmew Cubbins from “Bartholomew and the Oobleck” in making some of the fictional sticky green goo known as oobleck from cornstarch and food coloring. An edible craft inspired by “The Butter Battle Book,” taught kids how to make butter with a sweet muffin to test their creations on.
There were also several games inspired by some of the author’s classic books, including “Stack the Hat,” and “Would You Rather?” Younger activity attendees even had a chance to do a little bit of fishing at the “One Fish, Two Fish” station.
“Green Eggs and Ham” also made an appearance, which taught youngsters about rhyming words using green plastic eggs.
Even the event’s snacks had a little Suess-ified touch. which included Lorax seed snacks.
While the event was focused primarily on Seuss’ books, Mayhill said it is important to recognize the vital role of literacy, not only in children’s lives, but in the lives of the family as a whole.
“I’ve always said that literacy is the foundation of pretty much everything,” Mayhill said. “When families come and do things together at the library, there’s a lot of things that happen, because the parents are interacting with the children, and they’re listening to things, and they’re talking to each other.”
The goal of events like Saturday, Mayhill said, is to bring books to life for kids, and she hopes it leaves kids inspired. “We want them to fall in love with books, too. We say it’s really important to have books around so that kids feel the love from books.”
