On Beyond Zebra!
 | |
| Author | Dr. Seuss |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's literature |
| Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | 1955 (renewed 1983) |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and paperback) |
| OCLC | 7715159 |
| Preceded by | Horton Hears a Who! |
| Followed by | If I Ran the Circus |
On Beyond Zebra![1] is an illustrated children's book by Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. In this boundary-pushing take on the genre of alphabet book, Seuss presents not only the 26 letters of the conventional English alphabet but the 20 that come after that as well.
Plot
The young narrator, not content with the confines of the ordinary alphabet, reports on additional letters beyond Z, with a fantastic creature corresponding to each new letter. For example, the letter "FLOOB" corresponds to the Floob-Boober-Bab-Boober-Bubs, which have large buoyant heads and float serenely in the water. In order, the letters, followed by the creatures that correspond to them, are YUZZ (Yuzz-a-ma-Tuzz), WUM (Wumbus), UM (Umbus), HUMPF (Humpf-Humpf-a-Dumpfer), FUDDLE (Miss Fuddle-dee-Duddle), GLIKK (Glikker), NUH (Nutches), SNEE (Sneedle), QUAN (Quandary), THNAD (Thnadners), SPAZZ (Spazzim), FLOOB (Floob-Boober-Bab-Boober-Bubs), ZATZ (Zatz-it), JOGG (Jogg-oons), FLUNN (Flunnel), ITCH (Itch-a-pods), YEKK (Yekko), VROO (Vrooms), and HI! (High Gargel-orum). The book ends with an unnamed letter that apparently is a monogram of all 26 letters in the existing Latin alphabet from A to Z. A list of all the additional letters is shown at the end.
Analysis
Judith and Neil Morgan, Geisel's biographers, note that most of the letters resemble elaborate monograms, "perhaps in Old Persian".[2] These letters are not officially encoded in Unicode, but the independent ConScript Unicode Registry provides an unofficial assignment of code points in the Unicode Private Use Area for them.[3]
Legacy
Some of the animals from On Beyond Zebra appear in the 1975 CBS TV Special The Hoober-Bloob Highway, such as a Jogg-oon, a Sneedle, a Zatz-it, and a Wumbus.
References
- ↑ On Beyond Zebra!. New York: Random House. 1990. ISBN 0-394-80084-2.
- ↑ Morgan & Morgan, p. 152
- ↑ "Unofficial Unicode encoding for the Seussian Latin Extensions".
Sources
- Fensch, Thomas (2001). The Man Who Was Dr. Seuss. Woodlands: New Century Books. ISBN 0-930751-11-6.
- MacDonald, Ruth (1988). Dr. Seuss. Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0-8057-7524-2.
- Morgan, Neil; Morgan, Judith Giles (1996). Dr. Seuss Mr. Geisel: a biography. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-80736-7.
- Nel, Philip (2004). Dr. Seuss: American Icon. Continuum Publishing. ISBN 0-8264-1434-6.
- Pease, Donald E. (2010). Theodor Seuss Geisel. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-532302-3.