Rainn Wilson Narrates New Dr. Seuss Book ‘What Pet Should I Get?’
Actor Rainn Wilson has been hired to narrate the audio version of the new Dr. Seuss book, What Pet Should I Get?. According to the press release from Random House, the audio edition will be available the same day the book drops on July 28.
“It was an honor and privilege to help bring to life the words of perhaps my favorite author (and doctor) of all time, Dr. Seuss!” Wilson said in the press release.
What Pet Should I Get? arrives 25 years after writer and cartoonist Dr. Seuss, (also known as Theodor Seuss Geisel), released his last published work, Oh, The Places You’ll Go!
Yahoo! reports that Geisel’s widow, Audrey Geisel, found the manuscript in 2013, along with black-and-white illustrations done by Dr. Seuss himself. The book is believed to have been written sometime between 1958 and 1962.
“While undeniably special, it is not surprising to me that we found this because Ted always worked on multiple projects and started new things all the time,” Audrey Geisel said in statement from Random House. “He was constantly writing and drawing and coming up with ideas for new stories.”
Many fans of Dr. Seuss may be less than thrilled about this discovery, believing there’s a reason why dead writers (or musicians) never release such works — because the work was incomplete or simply abandoned, and to release such work so many years later cheapens the legacy.
Several of Seuss’s books have been published posthumously, and a related Inquisitr article reports on titles that only the most committed Dr. Seuss readers know. Susan Brandt, president of licensing and marketing for Dr. Seuss Enterprises, explained how this new material is different.
“We had no idea what we were in store for when Claudia notified us of the materials discovered in Ted’s home,” Brandt said in Random House’s statement. “Pages and pages of manuscripts and sketches were laid out on the big glass dining room table. It was truly a magical moment, and we immediately knew this was more than just a box of sketches.”
Dr. Seuss was known for expressing his liberal and moralist views in his books through the use of “ridicule, satire, wordplay, nonsense words, and wild drawings to take aim at bullies, hypocrites, and demagogues.” His political ideas can be found in books such as: The Lorax, Horton Hears a Who, and The Cat in the Hat, which had an underlying theme that encouraged child rebellion.
While best known for his children’s books, Dr. Seuss also had a career in making political cartoons, working for such publications as New York newspaper PM and Judge magazine. Between the years of 1941-1943, Seuss illustrated over 400 cartoons, many were directed towards the war, Adolf Hitler, and Japan.
Does What Pet Should I Get? contain a political message? A New York Times review states the book “has no great big lesson.” The new Seuss book will arrive just in time to cure your Harper Lee blues. Her latest manuscript, Go Set a Watchman, a prequel to the highly acclaimed To Kill a Mockingbird, was released July 14 by HarperCollins. The book is currently number one on both Amazon’s book and Kindle best seller lists. E! News reports that fans of the tale were shocked to discover their beloved Atticus Finch is a racist.
Meanwhile, publishers everywhere are digging through all their old, unpublished manuscripts looking for an incomplete title from authors just as renowned as Harper Lee and Dr. Seuss.
[Image via Angela Weiss/Getty Images/Zimbio]
