''McElligot's Pool'' is a

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

written and illustrated by Theodor Geisel under the pen name

Dr. Seuss Theodor Seuss Geisel (;"Seuss"
'' Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

in 1947. In the story, a boy named Marco, who first appeared in Geisel's 1937 book ''

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street ''And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street'' is Theodor Seuss Geisel's first Children's literature, children's book published under the pen name Dr. Seuss. First published by Vanguard Press in 1937, the story follows a boy named Marco, who ...

'', imagines a wide variety of fantastic fish that could be swimming in the pond in which he is fishing. It later became one of the Seuss books featured in the Broadway musical ''

Seussical ''Seussical'' is a musical comedy by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, based on the many children's stories of Dr. Seuss, with most of its plot being based on ''Horton Hears a Who!'', '' Gertrude McFuzz'', and ''Horton Hatches the Egg'' while inc ...

'' where its story is used for the song "It's Possible".

Plot

The story begins with a boy named Marco fishing in a small, trash-filled pond known as McElligot's Pool. A local farmer laughs at the boy and tells him that he will never be able to catch anything. Nevertheless, Marco holds out hope and begins to imagine a scenario in which he might be able to catch a fish. First, he suggests that the pool might be fed by an underground brook that travels under a highway and a hotel to reach the sea. Marco then imagines a succession of fish and other creatures that he might catch in the sea and therefore the pool. He imagines, among others, a fish with a

checkerboard A checkerboard (American English) or chequerboard (British English; see spelling differences) is a board of checkered pattern on which checkers (also known as English draughts) is played. Most commonly, it consists of 64 squares (8×8) of altern ...

stomach, a seahorse with the head of an actual horse, and an eel with two heads. When Marco is done imagining, he tells the farmer, "Oh, the sea is so full of a number of fish, if a fellow is patient, he ''might'' get his wish!"

Creation

Geisel painted some of the water colors that illustrate ''McElligot's Pool'' while vacationing with his wife,

Helen Helen may refer to: People * Helen of Troy, in Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world * Helen (actress) (born 1938), Indian actress * Helen (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Places * Helen, ...

, at the summer home of their friend Kelvin Vanderlip, in Southern California.Morgan & Morgan 1995, pp. 120–122 The book was the first Dr. Seuss book to use water colors for its illustrations, but because of budget concerns, Random House published half of the book in black and white, alternating between two pages in color and two pages in black and white. Marco, the book's main character, first appeared in ''And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street'',Fensch 2001, pp. 90–93 the first Dr. Seuss book published in 1937 by

Vanguard Press The Vanguard Press (1926–1988) was a United States publishing house established with a $100,000 grant from the left wing American Fund for Public Service, better known as the Garland Fund. Throughout the 1920s, Vanguard Press issued an array o ...

. Geisel dedicated the book to his father, whom the dedication refers to as "the World's Greatest Authority on Blackfish, Fiddler Crabs, and Deegel Trout". According to Dr. Seuss biographers Judith and Neil Morgan, "deegel trout" was a private joke between Geisel and his father that was started during a fishing trip when Geisel was a boy. His father had bought large trout from Deegel hatchery and pretended that they had caught them.

Reception

''McElligot's Pool'', Geisel's first book in seven years, was published by

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

in 1947 and was well received. It became a Junior Literary Guild selection and garnered Geisel his first

Caldecott Honor The Randolph Caldecott Medal, frequently shortened to just the Caldecott, annually recognizes the preceding year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". It is awarded to the illustrator by the Association for Library Service ...

. The review in the ''

Saturday Review of Literature ''Saturday Review'', previously ''The Saturday Review of Literature'', was an American weekly magazine established in 1924. Norman Cousins was the editor from 1940 to 1971. Under Norman Cousins, it was described as "a compendium of reportage, ess ...

'' stated: "Children will have nothing but admiration for this boy who heard there were no fish in McElligot's Pool and then saw them swimming in from the sea". M.B. King of the ''

Chicago Sun The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...

'' emphasized the book's humor: "This time prepare to chuckle under water for you'll be meeting the weirdest, wildest, funniest creatures of the sea which imagination can conjur". S.J. Johnson of ''

Library Journal ''Library Journal'' is an American trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey. It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional prac ...

'' called the book "as divinely idiotic" as Dr. Seuss' earlier title ''And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street''. American trade editions of the book were printed in 1947, 1974, 1975, and 1992, and a library edition was printed in 1999.

Withdrawal from publication

On March 2, 2021, Dr. Seuss Enterprises withdrew ''McElligot's Pool'' and five other books from publication because they "portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong". Dr. Seuss Enterprises did not specify which illustrations were offensive. The book uses the word "

Eskimo Eskimo () is an exonym used to refer to two closely related Indigenous peoples: the Inuit (including the Alaska Native Iñupiat, the Greenlandic Inuit, and the Canadian Inuit) and the Yupik peoples, Yupik (or Siberian Yupik, Yuit) of eastern Si ...

" in one instance, as an adjective describing a type of imagined fish that might swim from the North Pole to McElligot's Pool. The term "Eskimo" could be considered old-fashioned in American English, and has been deemed by some as offensive in Canadian English. There is an accompanying illustration depicting the fantastical group of "Eskimo Fish" in hooded fur parkas. After the books were removed, nine of the top ten, including the top four, books on

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

's charts in the United States were Dr. Seuss books, though none were the books removed.

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also delisted the title for "offensive content".

References

Sources