The Cat in the Hat Came Back - and back and back and back and back...

30 year old copy of the Cat in the Hat Came Back

As I was reading Jacob his bedtime story last night, Dr Seuss’s “The Cat in the Hat Came Back”, I glanced inside the front cover and noticed the handwritten words “Jason Lee Taylor, Christmas 1982”.  I think around 50% of the kids bookshelves contains books from when Jason was a little boy and most of them have written on the inside cover the year he was given them.

A Christmas Present to Jason, 30 Years Ago

Now obviously I had noticed this writing before but never really thought too much about it.  Last night it suddenly occurred to me that the book we were sitting reading was 30 years old and had been read to Jason as a 5 year old boy, the age Jacob is now.

“The Cat in the Hat Came Back” is a children’s classic, as are most of the Dr Seuss collection are and sitting holding the book I thought “hang on, if Jason has had this book for 30 years, then when was it first published?”  Well it was first published in Great Britain in 1961. So for over 50 years children have been entertained by this wonderful story.

One day I am going to take a look through all Jason’s old books from when he was a boy to see which one is the oldest, just for my own curiosity and I too now write my children’s name, year and who the book is from on the inside of the cover.

I hope in years to come (MANY, MANY years to come) that Jacob and Bella will sit and read these same books to their children.