McElligot's Pool Author: Visit Amazon's Dr. Seuss Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0394800834 | Format: PDF
McElligot's Pool Description
Amazon.com Review
McElligot's Pool is a Seuss classic from the distant era before even
The Cat In The Hat. It's a single poetic variation on the theme of adult skepticism that's no match for childhood faith and daydreaming. A small boy is fishing in the tiny, unpromising McElligot's Pool, a puddle that (as a passing farmer informs our diminutive hero) is nothing but a hole where people dispose of their junk. But the boy is all optimism: what if the pool is deeper than anyone thinks? What if it connects to an underground stream that flows under the town to the sea? Might not all sorts of fish then swim up the stream and be caught here? "I might catch an eel... (Well, I might. It depends.) A long twisting eel with a lot of strange bends. And, oddly enough, with a head at both ends!" The moral of the story is straightforward: "If I wait long enough, if I'm patient and cool,/ Who knows what I'll catch in McElligot's pool?" (Ages 4 to 8)
--Richard Farr Review
"Rare and wonderful imaginings are told in the author-artist's inimitable rhyme and are shown in hilariously funny pictures."--
Booklist. See all Editorial Reviews
- Age Range: 5 - 9 years
- Grade Level: Kindergarten - 4
- Series: Classic Seuss
- Hardcover: 64 pages
- Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (September 12, 1947)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0394800834
- ISBN-13: 978-0394800837
- Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 13 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
This book sets up a contrast between the sour pessimism of an adult farmer and the unbounded optimism of a boy. The farmer finds the boy with his fishing line dangling in a small water-filled crack in the earth.
"You're sort of a fool!
You'll never catch fish
in McElligot's Pool!"
As you can imagine, youngster often take that as a challenge to keep doing what they are doing, and this one certainly did. His fertile imagination soon fills the world with opportunity for good fishing.
"This pool might be bigger
Than you or I know!"
He goes on to imagine that it could connect underground all the way to the sea and contain many varieties of fish (Dog Fish, Catfish, or "even a fish made of strawberry jelly" not to mention one with a pinwheel-like tail, another with fins like a sail, and many many more). The book's core is a series of fantastic fish, each more remarkable than the last. The most exciting one to me is a THING-A-MA-JIGGER (that's much bigger than a whale).
Having thought about all of these fish, the boy ponders,
"Oh, the sea is so full of a number of fish,
If a fellow is patient, he might get his wish!"
But, the boy is still there with the little pool. What else is he thinking? He's actually congratulating himself for being so wise.
"And that's why I think
That I'm not such a fool
When I sit here and fish
In McElligot's Pool!"
That, of course, is the downside of optimism. You can spend a lot of time doing things that make little sense, in hopes they will pan out. Research has shown that optimists vastly outperform pessimists. The difference seems to be that optimists try more things, and some of them work!
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