On Beyond Zebra!
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| Author | Dr. Seuss |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's literature |
| Publisher | Random House |
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Publication date
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1955 (renewed 1983) |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and paperback) |
| OCLC | 7715159 |
| Preceded by | Horton Hears a Who! |
| Followed by | If I Ran the Circus |
On Beyond Zebra![1] is an illustrated children's book by Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. In this boundary-pushing take on the genre of alphabet book, Seuss presents, instead of the twenty-six letters of the conventional English alphabet, twenty more letters that purportedly follow them.
Contents
Plot[edit]
The young narrator, not content with the confines of the ordinary alphabet, reports on additional letters beyond Z, with a fantastic creature corresponding to each new letter. For example, the letter "FLOOB" corresponds to the Floob-Boober-Bab-Boober-Bubs, which have large buoyant heads and float serenely in the water. In order, the letters, followed by the creatures that correspond to them, are YUZZ (Yuzz-a-ma-Tuzz), WUM (Wumbus), UM (Umbus), HUMPF (Humpf-Humpf-a-Dumpfer), FUDDLE (Miss Fuddle-dee-Duddle), GLIKK (Glikker), NUH (Nutches), SNEE (Sneedle), QUAN (Quandary), THNAD (Thnadners), SPAZZ (Spazzim), FLOOB (Floob-Boober-Bab-Boober-Bubs), ZATZ (Zatz-it), JOGG (Jogg-oons), FLUNN (Flunnel), ITCH (Itch-a-pods), YEKK (Yekko), VROO (Vrooms), and HI! (High Gargel-orum). The book ends with an unnamed letter which is substantially more complicated than those with names. A list of all the additional letters is shown at the end.
Analysis[edit]
Judith and Neil Morgan, Geisel's biographers, note that most of the letters resemble elaborate monograms, "perhaps in Old Persian".[2] These letters are not officially encoded in Unicode, but the independent ConScript Unicode Registry provides an unofficial assignment of code points in the Unicode Private Use Area for them.[3]
Legacy[edit]
Some of the animals from On Beyond Zebra! appear in the 1975 CBS TV Special The Hoober-Bloob Highway, such as a Jogg-oon, a Sneedle, a Zatz-it, and a Wumbus.
References[edit]
- ^ On Beyond Zebra!. New York: Random House. 1990. ISBN 0-394-80084-2.
- ^ Morgan & Morgan, p. 152
- ^ "Unofficial Unicode encoding for the Seussian Latin Extensions".
Sources[edit]
- Fensch, Thomas (2001). The Man Who Was Dr. Seuss. Woodlands: New Century Books. ISBN 0-930751-11-6.
- MacDonald, Ruth (1988). Dr. Seuss. Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0-8057-7524-2.
- Morgan, Neil; Morgan, Judith Giles (1996). Dr. Seuss Mr. Geisel: a biography. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-80736-7.
- Nel, Philip (2004). Dr. Seuss: American Icon. Continuum Publishing. ISBN 0-8264-1434-6.
- Pease, Donald E. (2010). Theodor Seuss Geisel. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-532302-3.
