Relay for Life of Chesterfield 2016 Theme: Dr. Seuss “He took a look and saw… a book!”

Your Mission: pick a book! What’s one of the first fun activities we do at Relay? Why, decorate our campsites of course! This year, we’re asking you to pick a Seuss inspired theme – pick a book! Dr. Seuss authored numerous titles throughout his life and you will find 60 titles to choose from!

Every team will need to pick a different book and teams will pick their book in the order they registered.

You team's campsite should be decorated in the spirit of your book, but your team has the ability to interpret your book however you wish.

Here’s a few ideas to get you started: “Horton hatches the CURE” “How the stole a CURE” “Oh, the places we’ll go when we find a CURE” “ Fights Back” “We don't like cancer; not in a box, not with a fox...” And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street “The story follows a boy named Marco, who describes the sights and sounds of imaginary people and vehicles traveling along Mulberry Street in an elaborate fantasy story he dreams up to tell to his father at the end of his walk, but decides instead to simply tell him what he actually saw.”

The 500 Hats of “Set in feudal times, the story begins in the Kingdom of Didd, when King Derwin is riding through a street past Bartholomew Cubbins, a poor boy in the market. Bartholomew removes his hat, according to the laws, but another hat mysteriously appears; when he attempts to remove this one too, another one appears again, and this continues, even as he removes more and more hats, each growing in extravagance and beauty from the 451st hat onwards. Eventually, as Bartholomew is being threatened with death, the 500th hat, studded with massive gems and gilding, comes off and Bartholomew's head is bare again. Stunned by the beauty of the hat, King Derwin grants him reprieve and trades him 500 gold coins for the 500th hat.”

The King’s Stilts “Tells the story of King Bertram of Binn, who dedicates himself to safeguarding his kingdom, which lives in a precarious existence. It is surrounded by water, which is held back from flooding the land by a ring of dike trees, which are in turn subject to attack from flocks of nizzards. To protect the kingdom, a legion of Patrol Cats is organized to keep the nizzards at bay, and King Bertram sees to their care.” “The book recounts in prose the tale of not one, but seven sisters, none of whom ever wear clothing. The explanation for their nakedness, even when walking in snow, is that "they were simply themselves and chose not to disguise it." The story opens with the sisters' father, Lord Godiva, deciding to leave for the Battle of Hastings on horseback. This upsets the sisters, as horses are wild and untamed animals. Sure enough, before Lord Godiva even manages to leave the castle walls, he is flung from his horse and killed. As a tribute to their father's fate, the Godiva sisters agree to never marry—despite the fact that each is courting one of seven brothers named Peeping—until they can warn their countrymen of the dangers of horses. The book then follows the sisters as they set out on individual quests for "horse truths", which turn out to be well-known sayings involving horses.”

Horton Hatches the Egg “The book concerns an elephant named Horton, who is convinced by Mayzie (a lazy, irresponsible bird) to sit on her egg while she takes a short "break", which in actuality ends up being Mayzie's permanent relocation to Palm Beach. Naturally, the absurd sight of an elephant sitting atop a tree makes quite a scene – Horton is exposed to the elements, laughed at by his jungle friends, captured by hunters, forced to endure a terrible sea voyage, and finally placed in a traveling circus. However, despite his hardships and Mayzie's clear intent not to return, Horton refuses to leave the nest through all of these, because he insists on keeping his word (‘I meant what I said and I said what I meant, And an elephant's faithful, one hundred per cent!’)”

McElligot’s Pool “It is a tale of a boy named Marco who is ridiculed for fishing in a small, polluted pool. In typical Seussian fashion, when confronted with the limitations of his situation, the young boy imagines ways in which he could catch any number of any kind of fish in the small pool.” Thidwick The Big-Hearted Moose A moose with a kind heart is taken advantage of by opportunist animals who take up residence in his horns under the guise of being 'guests.' The moose undergoes various hardships as a result of these residents, including loss of his hair, his herd, and almost his life. Eventually, the moose stands up for himself, rids himself of the unwanted residents, and rejoins his herd.

Bartholomew and the Oobleck The book is a sequel of sorts to The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins. The book opens with an explanation about how people in the Kingdom of Didd still talk about "The year the King got angry with the sky," and how Bartholomew Cubbins, King Derwin of Didd's page boy, saved the Kingdom. Throughout the year, Bartholomew sees the king getting angry at rain in spring, sun in summer, fog in autumn, and snow in winter. The king explains he's angry because he wants something new to come down from the sky, but when Bartholomew points out that "even kings can't rule the sky," the king vows to prove Bartholomew wrong – ending in a big Oobleck mess and being resolved with the King’s simple phrase “I’m Sorry.”

If I Ran The Zoo “In the book, Gerald McGrew is a kid who, when visiting a zoo, finds that the exotic animals are "not good enough". He says that if he ran the zoo, he would let all of the current animals free and find new, more bizarre and exotic ones. Throughout the book he lists these creatures, starting with a lion with ten feet and escalating to more imaginative (and imaginary) creatures, such as the Fizza-ma-Wizza-ma-Dill, ‘the world's biggest bird from the island of Gwark, who eats only pine trees, and spits out the bark.’ The illustrations also grow wilder as McGrew imagines going to increasingly remote and exotic habitats and capturing each fanciful creature, bringing them all back to a zoo now filled with his wild new animals. He also imagines the praise he receives from others, who are amazed at his ‘new Zoo, McGrew Zoo’.” Scrambled Eggs Super!

“Tells of a boy named Peter T. Hooper, who makes scrambled eggs prepared from eggs of various exotic birds.”

Horton Hears A Who! “In the afternoon of May 15 while splashing in a pool located in the Jungle of Nool, Horton hears a small speck of dust talking to him. He discovers that the speck of dust is actually a tiny planet, home to a microscopic community called , where the Whos reside. The Whos are led by a character known as the Mayor. The Mayor asks Horton (who, though he cannot see them, is able to hear them quite well, because of his large ears) to protect them from harm, which Horton happily agrees to do, proclaiming throughout the book that ‘even though you can’t see or hear them at all, a person’s a person, no matter how small.’ In doing so he is ridiculed and forced into a cage by the other animals in the jungle for believing in something that they are unable to see or hear.”

On Beyond Zebra! “The young narrator, not content with the confines of the ordinary alphabet, invents additional letters beyond Z, with a fantastic creature corresponding to each new letter.”

If I Ran The Circus Behind Mr. Sneelock's ramshackle store, there's an empty lot. Little Morris McGurk is convinced that if he could just clear out the rusty cans, the dead tree, and the old cars, nothing would prevent him from using the lot for the amazing, world-beating, Circus McGurkus. The more elaborate Morris' dreams about the circus become, the more they depend on the sleepy-looking and innocent Sneelock, who stands outside his ramshackle store sucking on a pipe, oblivious to the fate that awaits him in the depths of Morris's imagination. He doesn't yet know that he'll have to dispense 500 gallons of lemonade, be lassoed by a Wily Walloo, wrestle a Grizzly-Ghastly, and ski down a slope dotted with giant cacti.” How The Grinch Stole Christmas “The Grinch, a bitter, cave-dwelling, cat-like creature tries to steal everything related to Christmas by impersonating Santa Claus. Eventually he realizes he has a heart for Christmas after all.”

The Cat In The Hat

“The Cat in the Hat brings his companions, Thing One and Thing Two, to a household of two young children one rainy day. Chaos ensues while the children wonder how they are going to explain what happens to their mother.”

The Cat In The Hat Comes Back “The Cat in the Hat returns and while he leaves Thing One and Thing Two at home, he does bring along Little Cat A nested inside his hat. Little Cat A doffs his hat to reveal Little Cat B, who in turn reveals C, and so on down to the microscopic Little Cat Z. Together they try to get rid of a pink ring that has spread from the bathtub to the dress, to the wall, into some shoes, and finally out onto the snow where they work to get rid of it.”

Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories “Consists of three stories: • Yertle the Turtle: Unsatisfied with the stone that serves as his throne, the king turtle commands the other turtles to stack themselves beneath him so that he can see further and expand his kingdom. • Gertrude McFuzz- The "girl-bird" Gertrude McFuzz, has a small, plain tail and envies Lolla-Lee-Lou, who has two tail feathers. • The Big Brag- A rabbit and a bear, both boast that they are the "best of the beasts", because of the range of their hearing and smelling abilities, respectively.” Happy Birthday To You! “Deals with a fantastic land, called Katroo, where the Birthday Bird throws everyone an amazing party on their special day. ‘Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you’”

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish “A simple rhyming book for learner readers, it is a book with a freewheeling plot about a boy and a girl, and the many amazing creatures they have for friends and pets. ‘From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere.’ ”

Green Eggs and Ham “Sam consistently badgers an unnamed character to try . The unnamed character refuses to taste the dish, insisting that he would not like it.”

The Sneetches and Other Stories “Consists of four stories: • The Sneetches: Because the star-bellied sneetches are being prejudicial to the plain-bellied Sneetches, a "fix-it-up chappie" named Sylvester McMonkey McBean appears and offers the Sneetches without stars a chance to have them by going through his Star-On Machine. • The Zax: A North-going Zax and a South-going Zax meet face to face in the Prairie of Prax. They refuse to move out of the way for one another and end up staying there. Teaches the value of compromise. • Too Many Daves: A mother, Mrs. McCave, who named all 23 of her sons Dave and has trouble telling them apart. • What Was I Scared Of?: The tale of a character who repeatedly meets up with an empty pair of pale-green pants and has to learn to accept them.” Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book “A small bug yawn spreads contagiously and though various creatures, including the Foona Lagoona Baboona, the Collaspable Frink, the Chippendale Mupp, The Oft, and the Krandles. Throughout the lands these creatures are sleeping, or preparing to sleep. Towards the end of the book the sleepers in the world are recorded by a special machine. ‘This book is to be read in bed’ as it is intended to put children to sleep.”

Dr. Seuss’s ABC “An alphabet book which features many strange creatures from the Aunt Annie's Alligator to the Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz.”

Hop On Pop “ provides very simple rhymes to help beginner reading, such as a character named Pat who sits on a hat, a cat and a bat but must not sit on that (which happens to be a cactus). Shows a variety of characters and teaches sentence composition.”

Fox in Socks “Mr. Fox converses with his partner Mr. Knox almost entirely in rhyming tongue-twisters, which begins to get on Knox's nerves. ‘When a fox is in the bottle where the tweetle beetles battle with their paddles in a puddle on a noodle-eating poodle, THIS is what they call...a tweetle beetle noodle poodle bottled paddled muddled duddled fuddled wuddled , sir!’” I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew “Solla Sollew is an Odyssey-tale told in the first person by a young narrator who experiences troubles in his life (mostly aggressive small animals which bite and sting) and wishes to escape them. He sets out for the mythical city of the title (‘where they never have troubles / at least very few’) and learns that he must face his problems instead of running away from them. He then goes back home to deal with his ‘troubles,’ arming himself with a big bat and resolving that ‘Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me! ’”

The Foot Book

“Introduces many different creatures with very different feet.”

I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today “The title story concerns a boy who brags that he can fight 30 tigers and win. However, he makes excuse after excuse, finally disqualifying all the tigers until he must fight no tigers at all.”

Mr. Brown Can Moo Can You?

“The book shows the sounds ‘Mr. Brown’ can make, such as a cow's ‘moo’, a frying pan's ‘sizzle’, and a hippo's ‘grum’.”

The Lorax chronicles the plight of the environment and the Lorax (a mossy, bossy man-like creature resembling an emperor tamarin), who speaks for the trees against the greedy Once-ler. ‘Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.’”

Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now! “The book presents in short and funny fashion, Dr. Seuss's nonsensical words, rhymes, and illustrations. In the book, Marvin K. Mooney—ostensibly a young child whose bedtime has come—is asked to ‘go’ in many ways.”

Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are “Discusses an amusing litany of terrible predicaments which could befall a person, with the repeated admonishment that ‘you're really quite lucky’.”

The Shape of Me and Other Stuff

“Explores the adventures of two kids and their journey to learn about all the shapes and sizes that make up our world.”

There’s a Wocket in My Pocket! “A little boy talks about what strange creatures live in his house, such as the Yeps on the steps, the Nooth Grush on his toothbrush, the Yottle in the bottle and the Jertain in the curtain.” Great Day for Up “A book about a town where everything is UP and every new day starts a new adventure. ‘It's up heads, up whiskers, tails up, up great day today great day for up.’

Oh The Thinks You Can Think “About the many amazing 'thinks' one can think and the endless possibilities and dreams that imagination can create.

The Cat’s Quizzer

“The Cat in the Hat asks many, sometimes ridiculous, questions of the reader. • Do pineapples grow on pine or apple trees? • Do roosters sleep on their backs or sides?”

I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! “The Cat in the Hat shows a Young Cat the fun he can get out of reading. Also shows that reading is a useful tool to acquire knowledge. ‘Young cat! If you keep your eyes open enough, Oh, the stuff you will learn! The most wonderful stuff!’”

Oh Say Can You Say? “A collection of 25 tongue-twisters such as ‘Oh my brothers! Oh my sisters! These are Terrible Tongue Twisters!’” “A boy is approached by numerous strange creatures with enormous gloved hats on their heads. Each "hunch" points out a different possible course of action with some even contradicting themselves.”

The Butter Battle Book “The conflict between the Yooks and the Zooks over which side of bread to spread butter on leads to an arms race, each competing to make bigger and nastier weapons to outdo the other, which results in the threat of mutual assured destruction.”

You’re Only Old Once “The book follows an elderly man on a visit to the Golden Years Clinic, where he endures long waits and bizarre medical tests. On his journey, he notices the clinic’s inefficiencies.”

I Am Not Going to Get up Today! "A rhyming story that is full of laughs. 'The alarm can ring. The birds can peep....Today's the day I'm going to sleep,' says a lazy boy one morning, and despite a pail of icy water, television coverage, and the arrival of the Marines, he vows to stay in bed- -and he does!

Oh, The Places You’ll Go! The protagonist travels through several geometrical and polychromatic landscapes and places, eventually encountering a place simply called ‘The Waiting Place’, which is ominously addressed as being a place where everyone is always waiting for something to happen. ‘Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find, for a mind maker-upper to make up his mind’.” Daisy-Head Mayzie “The book is about a schoolgirl named Mayzie who one day suddenly sprouts a bright yellow daisy from her head. It causes alarm in her classroom, family, and town, until an agent makes her a celebrity. The Cat in the Hat is seen serving as the narrator to this story who helps Mayzie to understand her problem and persuade her to go back home.”

My Many Colored Days “A rhyming story, which describes each day in terms of a particular color which is in turn associated with a specific emotion. Noted as a great book to help parents teach children about their emotions.”

Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! “The story surrounds a school that is well liked by its students notably because of its many eccentric teachers. However, the students must make a good grade on a standardized test (which turns out in the end to be a revising test on multiple subjects they regularly learn) lest they be sent to an adjacent school, which requires uniforms to be worn and is incredibly dull.”

The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories The seven stories included in the book are: • "The Bippolo Seed": a duck finds a rare seed that can grant wishes, but a cat tells him to wish for more than he needs, to get money; they end up losing the seed. • "The Rabbit, the Bear, and the Zinniga-Zanniga": a rabbit escapes being eaten by convincing the bear that he has a rare but serious disorder. • "Gustav, the Goldfish": a boy overfeeds a goldfish, causing it to grow until it fills a cellar. • "Tadd and Todd": two identical twins don't like being the same, so they try to be different by enhancing their looks but fail. • "Steak for Supper": a boy brags about his steak dinner, causing strange beasts to follow him home, but it turns out to be stew. • "The Strange Shirt Spot": a boy gets dirt on himself, to his mother's dismay, so he tries to get it off but fails. • "The Great Henry McBride": a boy dreams of having five jobs. Ten Apples Up On Top!

“Three animals, a lion, a dog, and a tiger, who consistently pile apples on their heads for fun.”

I Wish That I Had Duck Feet “The story concerns a boy who wishes that he could have many different animal and mechanical body parts, finding fantastic uses for each. After he lists all the great things he can do with his new body part, he says why it would be problematic. At the end, he decides that he is happiest being himself.”

Come Over To My House “Written under a pen name, the illustrations in this book portray the various styles of homes that kids from around the world live in along with Seuss's recognizable prose. Throughout the book they also cover what kids eat, how they sleep (Japanese wooden pillows), play (sledding on pine needles), and even clean-up afterwards (Polynesian hot spring).”

The Eye Book “Our eyes see flies. Our eyes see ants. Sometimes they see pink underpants. Oh, say can you see? Dr. Seuss’s hilarious ode to eyes gives little ones a whole new appreciation for all the wonderful things to be seen!”

In A People House “When a spunky mouse invites a passing bird to see what's inside a People House, chaos ensues while beginning readers learn the names of 65 common household items —and that people are generally not pleased to find mice and birds in their houses! A super simple, delightfully silly introduction to objects around the home—from none other than Dr. Seuss!”

Wacky Wednesday “A baffled youngster awakens one morning to find everything's out of place, but no one seems to notice! The book shows the adventures the young boy has and how he learns to cope with an abnormal day.”

Would You Rather Be A Bullfrog? “Would you rather be a clarinet . . . a trombone . . . or a drum? (How would you like to have someone going boom-boom on your tum?) Beginning readers are asked to ponder these–and a host of other odd choices–in this charming, provocative book by Dr. Seuss that encourages children to let their imaginations fly.”

Hooper Humperdink…? NOT HIM! “A certain kid (the narrator) invites all his friends- whose names begin with all 26 letters of the alphabet- to a party at his house, except for Hooper Humperdink, but changes his mind as soon as the others are already having fun.”

Please Try to Remember the First of Octember! “Question: What do you get the kid who wants everything? Answer: Please Try to Remember the First of Octember! A book that gently pokes fun at the green-eyed monster in all of us. If you want a green kangaroo, a skateboard TV or a Jeep-a-Fly kite – just wait till the first of Octember. This delightful exercise in wish-fulfilment introduces children to the months of the year and the idea that they may not always get what they want! ”

Maybe You Should Fly A Jet! Maybe You Should Be A Vet! “What do you want to do when you grow up? A ticket taker… a pizza maker…? A wrestler, a writer or maybe a waiter? A whole host of silly and sensible options dances before your eyes in this rhythmic, rhyming cavalcade of jobs.”

The Tooth Book “Shows people and animals that have teeth, and ones that do not. Explains that you only get two sets of teeth, and briefly how to care for them.”

Because A Little Bug Went Ka-CHOO! “A bug sneezes, which sets off a series of larger and larger consequences, in the end nearly sending a whole town into chaos. The small bug sneezes, which causes a seed to fall on a worm, which angers the worm, who kicks a tree, which loosens a coconut, which hits a turtle on the head, who then falls in the water causing a splash, which hits a hen, who in anger kicks a bucket… and on and on.”

If we missed any Dr. Seuss titles, feel free to chose from those books as well.