New book by K-State English professor Nel is everything you wanted to know about 'The Cat in the Hat'

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Source: Philip Nel, 785-532-2165, philnel@k-state.edu
http://www.mediarelations.k-state.edu/WEB/News/MediaGuide/pnelbio.html
News release prepared by: Michelle Hall, 785-532-6415, mhall@k-state.edu

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

NEW BOOK BY K-STATE ENGLISH PROFESSOR NEL IS EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT 'THE CAT IN THE HAT'

MANHATTAN -- You can think of Philip Nel's new book about "The Cat in the Hat" as a special-edition DVD on the children's classic, with lots of extras.

"The Annotated Cat: Under the Hats of Seuss and His Cats," Nel's fourth book, has been published this month by Random House in conjunction with the 50th anniversary in March of the publication of "The Cat in the Hat." Nel, associate professor of English at Kansas State University, also is the author of "Dr. Seuss: American Icon," published in 2004.

"The Annotated Cat" is an illustrated study of both "The Cat in the Hat" and "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back." Nel's book contains the complete "The Cat in the Hat," published in 1957, and "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back," published in 1958, along with his introduction and annotations and two semi-fictional accounts by Dr. Seuss on how he came to write "The Cat in the Hat." In addition, the book includes "The Strange Shirt Spot," a Seuss magazine story that gets recycled in "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back."

"In the book, you'll see lots of images," Nel said. "Photographs of manuscript pages, along with images -- usually cartoons -- by artists who influenced Seuss, some of Seuss' advertisements and political cartoons, a few political cartoons inspired by the Cat, covers of foreign editions, and some stills from the animated cartoon version of 'The Cat in the Hat,' which Seuss co-wrote.

"In short, this book should answer every question you ever had about 'The Cat in the Hat,' along with many questions you didn't think to ask in the first place," he said.

Nel said Seuss' books teach reading as well as poetry, politics, ethics, comics, history and con artistry. Nel said he wrote "The Annotated Cat" to show that it's fun to take Seuss seriously.

"An annotated edition is the perfect way to demonstrate this," he said. "I think of an annotated edition as like a special-edition DVD with lots of extras. You can peruse the portions that interest you and skip the sections that don't interest you."

Nel said, for example, you can find out how people have interpreted the fish in the story, learn how Seuss came up with the idea of the Cat or find out how many revisions Seuss made to the manuscript.

"When we read, we interpret," Nel said. "'The Annotated Cat' provides a variety of contexts in which we might interpret the books -- biographical, historical, political, cultural, formal, aesthetic and others. Reading 'The Cat in the Hat' and 'The Cat in the Hat Comes Back' with all of this additional information, we can gain a deeper, more complex appreciation of the books themselves and of the man who wrote them. This, at least, is my goal."

"The Annotated Cat" is published by Random House and is available wherever books are sold. It also is listed under suggested books to celebrate the 50th birthday of "The Cat in the Hat" at http://www.seussville.com/CITH_50th

Nel also has written "J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Novels: A Reader's Guide" and "The Avant-Garde and American Postmodernity: Small Incisive Shocks." He is the director of the children's literature program at K-State. In fall 2006, K-State introduced a new master's degree program in children's literature, becoming one of only 10 U.S. universities that offer a master's degree in English with a concentration in children's literature.