Revisiting a Childhood Classic

"It's a pretty good zoo," said young Gerald McGrew, and the fellow who runs it seems proud of it too,

But if I ran the zoo," said young Gerald McGrew, "I'd make a few changes, that's just what I'd do."

I don't know how universal this is, but when I graduated high school, it seemed like every kid in my graduating class got the same gift from their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, or someone - a copy of Dr. Seuss's children's book, "Oh the Places You'll Go."  I didn't.  Instead, I got a copy of another Seussian book, "If I Ran the Zoo."  By this time in my life I was already volunteering at our local zoo and had been for some years, occasionally getting a paid side-gig as a thanks for a job well done.  Everyone who knew me knew that my goal was to work in a zoo, so the gift seemed pretty fitting.

I'm not positive what I would have gotten if I graduated next year.  It wouldn't be this book, unless someone had an old copy set aside.  If I Ran the Zoo is going out of print, as are a small handful of other Seuss books.  Seuss was an excellent poet and illustrator.  It's just that some of those illustrations are a little.... well...

Looking back at this illustration, you could almost be forgiven for not realizing that the two beings carrying the bird on the pole are supposed to be humans - they look as unworldly as any of the other creatures in the book.  There are also strange caricatures of Chinese, Arabian, and Russian folks in the book, but man, those Africans - they really take the culturally insensitive cake.

I'll still treasure my copy of the book - to be honest I don't think I ever even processed the people in it, I was so fixated on the animals - but I can definitely understand the decision to stop spreading these illustrations.  Dr. Seuss kids are typically read to small kids, at an age when people are first developing their impressions of many things, including race.  I'm not saying If I Ran the Zoo turns kids into Klan members - I'm just saying illustrations like this don't help.

With a few tweaks, the story could still work.  Knowing how many people love Dr. Seuss, and at the risk of sound sacrilegious, I wonder if there's anyway to redo the book, with a few new illustrations, that would make it work for modern audiences.  It should be possible to celebrate the whimsy and magic of the book while removing offensive, outdated images of people.