Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories is a picture book collection by Theodor Geisel, published under his more commonly-known pseudonym of Dr. Seuss. It was first released by Random House Books on April 12, 1958, and is written in Seuss's trademark style, using a type of meter called anapestic tetrameter. Though it contains three short stories, it is mostly known for its first story, "Yertle the Turtle", in which the titular Yertle, king of the pon...
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Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories is a picture book collection by Theodor Geisel, published under his more commonly-known pseudonym of Dr. Seuss. It was first released by Random House Books on April 12, 1958, and is written in Seuss's trademark style, using a type of meter called anapestic tetrameter. Though it contains three short stories, it is mostly known for its first story, "Yertle the Turtle", in which the titular Yertle, king of the pond, stands on his subjects in an attempt to reach higher than the moon—until the bottom turtle burps and he falls into the mud, ending his rule. The story, among Seuss's most notable, is widely recognized as condemning fascism and absolute power; the despotic ruler Yertle was intended to parallel the dictator Adolf Hitler.
Though the book included "burp", a word then considered to be vulgar, it was a success upon publication, and has since sold over a million copies. In 2001, it was listed at 125 on the Publishers Weekly list of the best...
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