March 2 celebrates famed children’s writer Dr. Seuss’s birthday and marks National Read Across America Day. Schools and libraries throughout the United States have weeklong activities, many of which included dressing up as your favorite Dr. Seuss characters.
There are plenty of great selections to choose from since his career spans over 50 years. Some of the greatest comedians and actors like Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, and Danny DeVito have even helped bring these book characters to life.
Dr. Seuss’s imaginative characters help tell stories about life and philosophy, from Sneetches and xenophobia to the Lorax and the 1970s environmental movement. Whether you are a kid enjoying his books or an adult reflecting on his messages, his characters are some of the most fascinating and beloved. With that, let’s count down the top 10 best Dr. Seuss characters.
10. YOU
Whether your name is Buxbaum, Bixby, Bray, or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea, the character YOU functions as a placeholder for any Dr. Seuss reader. On this day, YOU decides what direction he will take and where he will go. He moves through places open and others dark, during fun times and other times hard. Ultimately, the story delivers an interesting existential message that YOU make of life what you will, which is a balancing act, but in the end, you succeed (over a 98 percent chance guaranteed). In fact, “Kid, You’ll Move Mountains!” was published in 1990, these are the final words to us in Dr. Suess’s last published book.
9. Fox in Sox
Fox is red with blue sox and opens the book with a message to readers: “Take it SLOWLY. This Book is DANGEROUS!” It starts slow with a brown box and Mr. Knox, but then Fox increasingly complicates his games and tricks to the annoyance of Mr. Knox. It’s not easy going from clocks to blocks and Sue sewing socks, but Fox playing the role of the game master is rewarded and ends with Mr. Knox having a lot of fun once he outsmarts him. The reader plays along too, and Fox asks them at the end, “Now is your tongue numb?”
8. Yertle the Turtle
Published a year after How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Yertle the Turtle resembles the Grinch but never has a change of heart. He wants to be the king of what he sees, so he commands other turtles to stack atop one another for his turtle throne, so to speak. However, Mack, the turtle at way bottom, politely complains about his and others’ stress and pain, but Yertle wants more and to see higher to be the king of even more. In the end, Mack burps, and Yertle falls head first into the mud, and now he’s the king of mud since that’s all he can see. He’s a character that teaches us about hubris and treating others well.
7. Cindy-Lou Who
If this were a list of the cutest Dr. Seuss characters, it would be hard not to list little Cindy-Lou Who as number one. She appears from her room as the Grinch readies to steal her Christmas tree, describing her small sound as “like the coo of a dove.” If that’s not cute enough, she even says “Santy Claus” when she asks the Grinch what he’s doing. It’s no wonder her popularity has grown with depictions of her in film and animations.
6. Thing One and Thing Two
Another auxiliary character (or two) supporting the title lead, Thing One and Thing Two are the go-to Dr. Seuss Day dress-up for school faculty members. The Cat in the Hat wasn’t lying when he says you will like these two things. Probably two of the funniest-looking characters, and their frenetic nature makes staying inside on a rainy day worthwhile, even if Fish protests for Sally and her brother to put them out.
5. The Lorax
The Lorax might be the most important Dr. Seuss character, especially the older and wiser a Seuss fan gets. The Lorax was published in 1971 (one year after the first Earth Day), which is over 30 years after his first publication. The Once-ler tells a boy through a whisper-ma-phone the story of the Lorax, which begins in a colorful and glorious place full of Truffula Trees.
The Once-ler, whose face we never see, cuts down a tree and makes a Thneed that everyone needs. After he sells it to a man for money, he calls his family to come and build a factory and uses a Super-Axe-Hacker to cut all of the trees down. The Lorax speaks for the trees because they don’t have tongues and for all the sickly animals that lose their habitat and then all have to leave.
The Lorax leaves last but marks the word UNLESS before he leaps away through the smog. It’s a dark children’s book but ends with a hopeful message because the Once-ler gives the last Truffula Tree seed to the boy, for unless he cares to plant it and grow it, the land will remain dead and bare.
4. Horton
A gentle giant with an even bigger heart, Horton cares for all, those big and especially those small, because “a person’s a person” according to him. Horton even sits in (literally) for Mayzle bird on vacation in Horton Hatches the Egg. However, he’s probably best known for hearing a small speck of dust that turns out to be an entire community living on a clover. He sacrifices himself to protect them against the Wickersham Brothers (monkeys) and Vlad the eagle, who makes Horton search through three million flowers to find his friends. We all can learn a thing or two from Horton’s determination and compassion.
3. Sam-I-Am
Most people refer to him as Green Eggs and Ham because this is one of Dr. Seuss’s best-known books. However, his name is Sam-I-am, and, in his little red hat, he persists in offering those green eggs and ham. He offers them here, there, and just about anywhere and everywhere. Parents of picky eaters evoke Sam-I-am trying to convince their kids to “Try them! Try them! And you may.” Sam-I-am’s lines in this book are probably the best-known Dr. Seuss words that fans recite.
2. The Cat in the Hat
Anarchy isn’t the right word, but it’s the first word that comes to mind when thinking about Dr. Seuss’s the Cat in the Hat. There is a reason why characters like him, Fight Club’s Tyler Durden, and Clerks’ Randal Graves resonate with fans: becoming radically free is fun. Sally and her brother are bound inside on a rainy day doing nothing at all but sitting. Until the Cat in the Hat steps inside and unleashes “good fun that is funny.”
Their mother is out for the day, and Fish protests in bad faith, but the Cat in the Hat does not wish to go, so he will not go away, even escalating things by opening a red wood box with Thing One and Thing Two. Eventually, he comes back in another book for more mayhem and later in The Cat in the Hat Songbook, establishing him as the illustrated character most associated with Dr. Seuss’s books themselves.
1. The Grinch
The Cat in the Hat might be the character most associated with Dr. Seuss’s books, but the Grinch transcends books and is Dr. Seuss’s most recognized creation. The word “grinch” has a history in English literature, but Dr. Seuss’s Grinch personified the word, and when it’s used today, almost everyone imagines the Christmas Grinch when they use it. Published in 1957, the story of a sour, cantankerous creature who hated Christmas for reasons no one quite knows ends with his heart growing three times bigger after he sees that the Christmas objects he stole didn’t keep Who-ville from celebrating the spirit of Christmas.
Solidifying his place as the most popular and top Dr. Seuss character, the Grinch has been and will continue to be adapted into animation and live-action, also becoming a staple of American cities’ Thanksgiving and Christmas Day parties, parades, and festivities. Who’s your number one? If you liked this list, check out our Most Popular Anime and Best Super Mario Bros. Games rankings.
