The Cat in the Hat Comes Back is a children's book written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss and published by Random House in 1958. The book is a sequel to The Cat in the Hat.
Plot
Once again, Sally and her brother are being left home alone for the day, but this time, their mother has left them with instructions to clear away a large amount of snow while she is out for the day. However, they are soon interrupted in their work by the arrival of the Cat in the Hat. Sally warns her brother not to talk to the Cat, because, he plays lots of bad tricks. Telling him not to let him come near. As they remember what he did the last time he was there."
But the Cat lets himself into their house to get out of the snow, and when the brother follows him in, he finds the Cat eating a cake in the tub with the hot water on and the cold water too. He glares at the Cat, turns off the water, and drains the tub only to find that a long pink ring has formed around the sides of the bath tub. The Cat offers to help, but his preliminary attempts to remove the pink spot fail as he only transfers the mess to a succession of other objects: their mother's white dress, the wall, their father's pair of $10 shoes, a rug, and their father's bed. Unsure of how to remove the stain from the bed, the Cat calls on the help of Little Cat A, who lives inside his hat, who lifts his hat to reveal Little Cat B, who reveals Little Cat C. The three Little Cats go to work, sending the stain to the television, then a pan, and finally outside.
Seeing the spot cover the snow, Little Cat C lifts his hat to reveal Little Cats D through G. All the Little Cats wage war on the snow spots, shooting at pink snowballs with pop guns. Since it only spreads the spots more, Little Cat G lifts his hat to reveal Little Cats H through V. The cats work more, but the spot keeps spreading, until all the snow is pink, so Little Cat V takes off his hat to uncover Little Cats W, X, Y and the microscopic Little Cat Z. Z takes his hat off and unleashes a "Voom", which cleans up the spot, clears all the snow from the paths, and puts all of the Little Cats back into the Cat's hat. The Cat leaves, with the promise that he and the Little Cats, to A through Z, will return someday.
Analysis
The book ends in a burst of flamboyant versification, with the full list of little cats arranged into a metrically perfect rhymed quatrain, designed to teach the reader the alphabet.
Adaptations
After the 2003 film adaption of the original story, it was planned to make a sequel based on The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. However due to negative reception, Theodore Geisel's widow, Audrey Geisel, decided to not allow any future live adaptions of her husband's works and the plans for the sequel were cancelled.
Sources
- Morgan, Neil; Morgan, Judith Giles (1996). Dr. Seuss Mr. Geisel: a biography. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBNÂ 978-0-306-80736-7.Â
- Nel, Philip (2007). The Annotated Cat: Under the Hats of Seuss And His Cats. New York: Random House. ISBNÂ 978-0-375-83369-4.Â
- Nel, Philip (2004). Dr. Seuss: American Icon. Continuum Publishing. ISBNÂ 0-8264-1434-6.Â
