One of my favorite books as a child was Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose, written in 1948 by Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss.
Thidwick, one of 600001 moose in a herd, graciously allows a bug to take up residence on his antlers. The bug shares his good fortune with his buddy, a spider, who quickly moves in, too.
Both the bug and spider invite a "Zinnazu" bird to join them, who is quickly followed by a woodpecker and four squirrels.
By the time a bobcat and turtle settle in on Thidwick's antlers, the rest of the herd is about ready to amble across Lake Winna-Bango to find "fresh moose moss to munch."
Thidwick knows he needs to head across the lake or else he will starve. He steps into the water, but his squatters protest. The moose pleads with them and the guests decide to put the matter to a vote.
"AYE!" Thidwick, but when he was done...
"Nay!" they all yelled. He lost 'leven to one.
The pressure is starting to affect poor Thidwick, especially after three mice (with fleas), a fox, a bear and 362 bees move into the "antler hotel."
But that's not the worst of it.
A group of five hunters, who "must get his head for the Harvard club wall," soon close in our unlucky moose. He becomes trapped after an unsuccessful attempt to escape, and is on the verge of meeting his maker.
Fortunately, Thidwick remembers that it's antler-shedding season.
He quickly throws the antlers off and swims across the lake to join his mates, leaving his tenants to deal with the hunters. His antlers, complete with his former freeloaders, are unceremoniously stuffed and mounted.
This surprise ending captivated me as a child.
So did a multitude of other Seuss classics, from The Cat in the Hat (1957) to Green Eggs and Ham (1960) to Hop on Pop (1963).
This 20th century philosopher published over 40 children's books, complementing his imaginative rhymed prose with eye-catching cartoons.
Few people realize that he worked as a political cartoonist for a New York newspaper in the early 1940s.
He was a staunch supporter of President Franklin Roosevelt's war policy, and his cartoons showed it. They were highly critical of isolationists, most notably renowned aviator Charles Lindberg. Some of his other cartoons deplored racism at home against Jews and African-Americans.
After the war he moved to California, where he quickly hit his stride as an author of children's books. He turned out If I Ran the Zoo (1950), Scrambled Eggs Super! (1953), On Beyond Zebra! (1955) and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957).
About that same time, Life magazine published a report on illiteracy which concluded that many grade school children were having a difficult time learning to read because their books were too boring.
Responding to that report, Seuss' publisher gave him a list of 400 words he believed important for early readers. He asked Seuss to shorten the list to 250 words and write a book using only those words.
The result was The Cat in the Hat, which retained the drawing style and creative rhymes of his prior books while using just 220 words.
A few years later, Seuss wrote another entire book using only 50 words. This one turned out to be Green Eggs and Ham.
During the summer of 1974, he converted one of his children's books into a politically-charged article called "Richard M. Nixon, Will You Please Go Now!" It was published in major newspapers around the country through the column of his friend, Art Buchwald.
Nine days later, Nixon resigned.
Dr. Seuss died in 1991 at the age of 87. Though he devoted most of his working life to young people's literature, his obituary noted that he never had any children of his own.
Actually, he did. He had millions.