Do You Know What I'm Going to Do Next Saturday?

First edition

Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday? is the title of 1963 out of print children's picture book published by Beginner Books and written by Helen Palmer Geisel, the first wife of Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss). Unlike most of the Beginner Books, this is a library edition without a hardcover, it's not a paperback or softcover. Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday? did not follow the format of text with inline drawings, being illustrated with black-and-white photographs by Lynn Fayman, featuring a boy named Rawli Davis.[1] It is sometimes misattributed to Dr. Seuss himself.[2] The book's cover features a photograph of a young boy sitting at a breakfast table with a huge pile of pancakes.[3]

The 62-page[4] book became the subject of urban legends because some of the paragraphs from the book, when taken out of context, could be interpreted as references to suicide and violence. For example, the book contains the paragraph:

Did you ever beat
More than one kid at a time?
Well, I'm going to beat
Five kids at a time.
And then I'm going to beat
their fathers, too.[2]

However, the accompanying photographs show a young boy playing tennis and volleyball, making clear that the passage is actually referencing athletic competition.[2]

Likewise, the passage:

I'll blow horns. I'll blow and blow.
Next Saturday I'll blow my head off.
No one is going to stop me next Saturday.[2]

is accompanied by a photograph of a boy playing a tuba, and is therefore not a reference to suicide, contrary to what at least one website has claimed.[2]

Other activities mentioned in the book include bowling, water skiing,[5] marching, boxing, and shooting guns with the United States Marines,[6][7][8] and eating more spaghetti "than anyone else has eaten before.[9]

Helen Palmer's photograph-based children's books did not prove to be as popular as the more traditional text-and-illustrations format; however, Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday received positive reviews and was listed by the New York Times as one of the best children's books of 1963.[2] The book is now out of print.[10]

References

  1. ↑ "'credits'". Retrieved July 20, 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "The Banned Book of Dr. Seuss". The Urban Legends Reference Pages (snopes.com). Retrieved July 18, 2010.
  3. ↑ "Do you know what I'm going to do Next Saturday?". Retrieved July 20, 2010.
  4. ↑ Do you know what I'm going to do next Saturday?. ISBN 0-394-90031-6. OL 5885361M.
  5. ↑ "Bowling and skiing". Retrieved July 20, 2010.
  6. ↑ "Marines". Retrieved July 20, 2010.
  7. ↑ "Guns". Retrieved July 20, 2010.
  8. ↑ "Boxing". Retrieved July 20, 2010.
  9. ↑ "Spaghetti". Retrieved July 20, 2010.
  10. ↑ "Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday?". Retrieved July 18, 2010.
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