Green Eggs and Ham

''Green Eggs and Ham'' is a children's book by Dr. Seuss'' starring Paul Winchell as the voice of both characters, and more recently an animated TV series of the same name on Netflix (which also gave the originally unnamed character Sam pesters the name "Guy-Am-I").

Plot

Sam-I-Am offers an unnamed man a plate of green eggs and ham. However, the man refuses repeatedly throughout the story, saying "I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-Am." Sam further asks him to eat that food in various locations (house, box, car, tree, train, dark, rain, boat) and with a few different animals (mouse, fox, goat), but is still rebuffed. Finally, Sam-I-am asks the man to try them, and he accepts the green eggs and ham. When he declares that he likes them, he happily says, "I do so like green eggs and ham. Thank you. Thank you, Sam-I-Am."

Background

''Green Eggs and Ham'' is one of Seuss's "Beginner Books", written with very simple vocabulary for beginning readers. The vocabulary of the text consists of just 50 words and was the result of a bet between Seuss and Bennett Cerf, Dr. Seuss's publisher, that Seuss (after completing ''The Cat in the Hat'' using 236 words) could not complete an entire book without exceeding that limit. The 50 words are: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you. "Anywhere" is the only word used that has more than one syllable.

Reception and cultural impact

''Green Eggs and Ham'' was published on August 12, 1960.A 50 -year feast in 50 words
, ''Marketplace.'' Retrieved August 13, 2010. By 2001, it had become the fourth-best selling English-language children's hardcover book yet written.Menand, Louis
"A Critic at Large: Cat People: What Dr. Seuss Really Taught Us"
''The New Yorker''. December 23, 2002. the book has sold 8 million copies. In 1999, the National Education Association (NEA) conducted an online survey of children and teachers, seeking the 100 most popular children's books. The children ranked ''Green Eggs and Ham'' third, just above another Dr. Seuss book, ''The Cat in the Hat''.Kids' top 100 books
''NEA: National Education Association''. Retrieved November 26, 2006. The teachers ranked it fourth.
''NEA: National Education Association''. Retrieved November 26, 2006. Teachers ranked it fourth again in a 2007 NEA poll. '' Scholastic Parent & Child'' magazine placed it #7 among the "100 Greatest Books for Kids" in 2012. That same year, it was ranked number 12 among the "Top 100 Picture Books" in a survey published by ''School Library Journal'' – the first of five Dr. Seuss books on the list.

The book has become sufficiently ingrained in the cultural consciousness that U.S. District Court Judge James Muirhead referenced ''Green Eggs and Ham'' in his September 21, 2007, court ruling after receiving an egg in the mail from prisoner Charles Jay Wolff, who was protesting against the prison diet. Muirhead ordered the egg destroyed and rendered his judgment in the style of Seuss. Senator Ted Cruz read the book on the floor of the United States Senate during his filibuster over the funding of Obamacare. Musician will.i.am has stated that his moniker is inspired by the story.

On September 28, 1991, following Dr. Seuss' death earlier that week, Jesse Jackson recited an excerpt of ''Green Eggs and Ham'' on ''Saturday Night Live'' during a special tribute segment.

Adaptations

TV, film, and stage

In 1973, ''Green Eggs and Ham'' became the third of the three Theodor Geisel