Dr Seuss Quiz
The Cat, the Grinch, Horton and the Lorax: 15 questions on the rhyming genius of Dr. Seuss.
In The Cat in the Hat, what colours are the stripes on the Cat's tall hat?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Red and white
The Cat's floppy stovepipe hat has red and white stripes, matched by his red bow tie, and it has become the most recognisable piece of headwear in children's publishing.
The Cat in the Hat was published in 1957 after a magazine article complained that school primers such as Dick and Jane were too dull to teach children to read.
In How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, what is the name of the Grinch's long-suffering dog?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Max
Max is the Grinch's loyal dog, who is forced to wear a single antler tied to his head so he can pose as a reindeer and pull the sleigh full of stolen presents.
Geisel said he wrote the book after catching his own grumpy face in a mirror one December and deciding he had turned into the Grinch himself.
What was the real name of the author who wrote as Dr. Seuss?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Theodor Geisel
Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1904 and took his pen name from his middle name, which was also his mother's maiden name.
Geisel pronounced Seuss to rhyme with voice, the German way, but gave up correcting people because the rhyme with Mother Goose suited his books.
Which Dr. Seuss character declares that he speaks for the trees?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
The Lorax
The Lorax, a small orange creature with a bushy moustache, speaks for the Truffula Trees as the Once-ler chops them all down to knit Thneeds in the 1971 book.
Geisel wrote The Lorax after a trip to Kenya; he said the book poured out in a single afternoon after years of struggling with its preachy tone.
In Horton Hears a Who!, where does the tiny city of Whoville sit?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
On a speck of dust
Horton the elephant hears a cry for help from a speck of dust floating by, and spends the whole book protecting the microscopic Whos who live on it, because a person is a person no matter how small.
The 1954 book is often read as an apology for Geisel's harsh wartime cartoons about Japan, after a visit there changed his mind.
In The Cat in the Hat, what are the names of the two mischievous creatures the Cat releases from a red box?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Thing One and Thing Two
Thing One and Thing Two are blue-haired, red-suited troublemakers who fly kites indoors and wreck the house while the children's mother is out, until the Cat finally catches them with a net.
Geisel wrote the book from a list of 250 words supplied by his publisher's education director and used 236 of them.
Which Dr. Seuss book, a favourite graduation gift, opens with the line Congratulations! Today is your day?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Oh, the Places You'll Go!
Oh, the Places You'll Go! was published in 1990, the year before Geisel died, and its message about setbacks, waiting places and eventual success has made it a perennial bestseller every graduation season.
It was the last book Geisel published in his lifetime, and it climbs the US bestseller lists every spring more than three decades later.
In The Sneetches, what marks out the snobbish Sneetches from the ones they look down on?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Stars on their bellies
The Star-Belly Sneetches sneer at the Plain-Belly Sneetches until a con man named Sylvester McMonkey McBean arrives with machines that add and remove stars, and he takes every last cent from both sides.
Geisel said the story was inspired by his opposition to antisemitism, and it is widely used in schools to discuss prejudice.
Which Dr. Seuss book did he write to win a bet that he could not write a story using only 50 different words?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Green Eggs and Ham
Publisher Bennett Cerf bet Geisel $50 that he could not write a book with a vocabulary of just 50 words, and Green Eggs and Ham, published in 1960, used exactly 50.
Only one of the book's 50 words has more than one syllable, anywhere, and the other 49 are all short words a first grader could read.
In which American city was Theodor Geisel born in 1904?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Springfield, Massachusetts
Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, where his father ran the family brewery and later the city's parks, including the zoo whose animals the young Ted loved to sketch.
The real Mulberry Street in Springfield gave his first book its title, and the city now has a Dr. Seuss sculpture garden.
Which horror film star narrated the 1966 television special How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and voiced the Grinch?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff, famous for playing Frankenstein's monster, both narrated the Chuck Jones animated special and provided the Grinch's speaking voice, and he won a Grammy for the spoken-word recording.
The song You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch was sung not by Karloff but by Thurl Ravenscroft, who was also the voice of Tony the Tiger.
Which 1937 book was the first children's book Dr. Seuss published, after being rejected by many publishers?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street came out in 1937 after somewhere between 20 and 43 rejections; Geisel said he was walking home to burn it when he bumped into an old classmate who had just become an editor.
The book was withdrawn by the Seuss estate in 2021, along with five others, over racial imagery in its illustrations.
Geisel said the tyrannical turtle king in Yertle the Turtle was a stand-in for which dictator?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Adolf Hitler
Geisel confirmed that Yertle, who stacks his subjects into a throne until a burp from the turtle at the bottom topples him, was modelled on Hitler and the dangers of unchecked power.
The burp caused a stir at Random House in 1958, as it was thought to be the first burp ever printed in a children's book.
The Butter Battle Book, published in 1984, is an allegory of what real-world conflict?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
The nuclear arms race
The Yooks and the Zooks, who disagree about which side of bread to butter, build ever bigger weapons until each holds a tiny bomb that could destroy the other, a pointed parable of the Cold War arms race.
Some libraries pulled the book as too political, yet it spent months on the New York Times adult bestseller list, unusual for a picture book.
In which year was Dr. Seuss awarded a special Pulitzer Prize for his contribution to children's literature?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
1984
The Pulitzer board gave Geisel a special citation in 1984 for his nearly half-century contribution to the education and enjoyment of America's children and their parents.
He also won two Academy Awards for films long before his Pulitzer, including the animated short Gerald McBoing-Boing, which took the Oscar in 1951.
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All Literature quizzes →About the Dr Seuss Quiz
Theodor Geisel wrote The Cat in the Hat using just 236 different words, then won a $50 bet by writing Green Eggs and Ham with only 50. His first children's book was turned down by more than twenty publishers, and he went on to sell hundreds of millions of copies.
These 15 questions start with the Cat's hat and the Grinch's dog, move through Whoville, the Sneetches and Oh, the Places You'll Go!, and finish with the politics hidden inside Yertle the Turtle and The Butter Battle Book. It suits parents, teachers and anyone who grew up on Seuss and wants to see how much of the Whoville lore they really remember.
You will find 15 multiple choice questions here, each with four options. Difficulty: Medium. Most people finish in about 6 minutes, and every answer comes with a short explanation and one extra fact worth keeping.
How to play
Read the question and pick one of the four answers. The correct answer is revealed straight away with a short explanation, then press Next question to keep going. At the end you get your score out of 15 and a full review of your round. Play again any time and the questions arrive in a fresh order. There is no timer and no account.
Good to know before you play
Was Dr. Seuss a real doctor?
No. Theodor Geisel added the Dr. as a joke aimed at his father, who had hoped he would finish a doctorate at Oxford. Dartmouth College gave him an honorary doctorate in 1956.
Which Dr. Seuss book should a beginner reader start with?
Hop on Pop, Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat were all written with deliberately small vocabularies for children learning to read, so any of the three is a good first Seuss.
How many books did Dr. Seuss write?
He wrote and illustrated more than 60 children's books under the Dr. Seuss name, plus others under the pen names Theo LeSieg and Rosetta Stone.
Answer key: all 15 questions with explanations
- In The Cat in the Hat, what colours are the stripes on the Cat's tall hat?
Red and white The Cat's floppy stovepipe hat has red and white stripes, matched by his red bow tie, and it has become the most recognisable piece of headwear in children's publishing. The Cat in the Hat was published in 1957 after a magazine article complained that school primers such as Dick and Jane were too dull to teach children to read. - In How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, what is the name of the Grinch's long-suffering dog?
Max Max is the Grinch's loyal dog, who is forced to wear a single antler tied to his head so he can pose as a reindeer and pull the sleigh full of stolen presents. Geisel said he wrote the book after catching his own grumpy face in a mirror one December and deciding he had turned into the Grinch himself. - What was the real name of the author who wrote as Dr. Seuss?
Theodor Geisel Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1904 and took his pen name from his middle name, which was also his mother's maiden name. Geisel pronounced Seuss to rhyme with voice, the German way, but gave up correcting people because the rhyme with Mother Goose suited his books. - Which Dr. Seuss character declares that he speaks for the trees?
The Lorax The Lorax, a small orange creature with a bushy moustache, speaks for the Truffula Trees as the Once-ler chops them all down to knit Thneeds in the 1971 book. Geisel wrote The Lorax after a trip to Kenya; he said the book poured out in a single afternoon after years of struggling with its preachy tone. - In Horton Hears a Who!, where does the tiny city of Whoville sit?
On a speck of dust Horton the elephant hears a cry for help from a speck of dust floating by, and spends the whole book protecting the microscopic Whos who live on it, because a person is a person no matter how small. The 1954 book is often read as an apology for Geisel's harsh wartime cartoons about Japan, after a visit there changed his mind. - In The Cat in the Hat, what are the names of the two mischievous creatures the Cat releases from a red box?
Thing One and Thing Two Thing One and Thing Two are blue-haired, red-suited troublemakers who fly kites indoors and wreck the house while the children's mother is out, until the Cat finally catches them with a net. Geisel wrote the book from a list of 250 words supplied by his publisher's education director and used 236 of them. - Which Dr. Seuss book, a favourite graduation gift, opens with the line Congratulations! Today is your day?
Oh, the Places You'll Go! Oh, the Places You'll Go! was published in 1990, the year before Geisel died, and its message about setbacks, waiting places and eventual success has made it a perennial bestseller every graduation season. It was the last book Geisel published in his lifetime, and it climbs the US bestseller lists every spring more than three decades later. - In The Sneetches, what marks out the snobbish Sneetches from the ones they look down on?
Stars on their bellies The Star-Belly Sneetches sneer at the Plain-Belly Sneetches until a con man named Sylvester McMonkey McBean arrives with machines that add and remove stars, and he takes every last cent from both sides. Geisel said the story was inspired by his opposition to antisemitism, and it is widely used in schools to discuss prejudice. - Which Dr. Seuss book did he write to win a bet that he could not write a story using only 50 different words?
Green Eggs and Ham Publisher Bennett Cerf bet Geisel $50 that he could not write a book with a vocabulary of just 50 words, and Green Eggs and Ham, published in 1960, used exactly 50. Only one of the book's 50 words has more than one syllable, anywhere, and the other 49 are all short words a first grader could read. - In which American city was Theodor Geisel born in 1904?
Springfield, Massachusetts Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, where his father ran the family brewery and later the city's parks, including the zoo whose animals the young Ted loved to sketch. The real Mulberry Street in Springfield gave his first book its title, and the city now has a Dr. Seuss sculpture garden. - Which horror film star narrated the 1966 television special How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and voiced the Grinch?
Boris Karloff Boris Karloff, famous for playing Frankenstein's monster, both narrated the Chuck Jones animated special and provided the Grinch's speaking voice, and he won a Grammy for the spoken-word recording. The song You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch was sung not by Karloff but by Thurl Ravenscroft, who was also the voice of Tony the Tiger. - Which 1937 book was the first children's book Dr. Seuss published, after being rejected by many publishers?
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street came out in 1937 after somewhere between 20 and 43 rejections; Geisel said he was walking home to burn it when he bumped into an old classmate who had just become an editor. The book was withdrawn by the Seuss estate in 2021, along with five others, over racial imagery in its illustrations. - Geisel said the tyrannical turtle king in Yertle the Turtle was a stand-in for which dictator?
Adolf Hitler Geisel confirmed that Yertle, who stacks his subjects into a throne until a burp from the turtle at the bottom topples him, was modelled on Hitler and the dangers of unchecked power. The burp caused a stir at Random House in 1958, as it was thought to be the first burp ever printed in a children's book. - The Butter Battle Book, published in 1984, is an allegory of what real-world conflict?
The nuclear arms race The Yooks and the Zooks, who disagree about which side of bread to butter, build ever bigger weapons until each holds a tiny bomb that could destroy the other, a pointed parable of the Cold War arms race. Some libraries pulled the book as too political, yet it spent months on the New York Times adult bestseller list, unusual for a picture book. - In which year was Dr. Seuss awarded a special Pulitzer Prize for his contribution to children's literature?
1984 The Pulitzer board gave Geisel a special citation in 1984 for his nearly half-century contribution to the education and enjoyment of America's children and their parents. He also won two Academy Awards for films long before his Pulitzer, including the animated short Gerald McBoing-Boing, which took the Oscar in 1951.
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