''On Beyond Zebra!''
is a 1955 illustrated children's book by Theodor Geisel, better known as
Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel (;["Seuss"](_blank)
'' alphabet book
An alphabet book is a type of children's book giving basic instruction in an alphabet. Intended for young children, alphabet books commonly use pictures, simple language and alliteration to aid language learning. Alphabet books are published ...
, Seuss presents, instead of the twenty-six letters of the conventional
English alphabet
The alphabet for Modern English is a Latin-script alphabet consisting of 26 letters, each having an upper- and lower-case form. The word ''alphabet'' is a compound of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, '' alpha'' and '' beta''. ...
, twenty additional letters that purportedly follow them.
Plot
The young narrator, not content with the confines of the ordinary
alphabet
An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syll ...
, reports on additional letters beyond
Z, with a fantastic creature corresponding to each new letter. For example, the letter "FLOOB" is the first letter in Floob-Boober-Bab-Boober-Bubs, which have large buoyant heads and float serenely in the water.
In order, the letters, followed by the creatures for which the letters are the first letter when spelling their names, 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 is substantially more complicated than those with names. 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
monogram
A monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos. A series o ...
s, "perhaps in
Old Persian
Old Persian is one of the two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan language, Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native ...
".
[Morgan & Morgan, p. 152] These letters are not officially encoded in
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...
, but the independent
ConScript Unicode Registry The ConScript Unicode Registry is a discontinued volunteer project to coordinate the assignment of code points in the Unicode Private Use Areas (PUA) for the encoding of artificial scripts including those for constructed languages. It was founded by ...
provides an unofficial assignment of code points in the
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...
Private Use Area
In Unicode, a Private Use Area (PUA) is a range of code points that, by definition, will not be assigned characters by the Unicode Consortium. Three private use areas are defined: one in the Basic Multilingual Plane (), and one each in, and nearl ...
for them.
Legacy
Some of the animals from ''On Beyond Zebra!'' appear in the 1975 CBS TV Special ''
The Hoober-Bloob Highway
''The Hoober-Bloob Highway'' is an animated musical special written by Theodor Geisel (the real name of Dr. Seuss) and produced by DePatie–Freleng Enterprises. The special first aired February 19, 1975 on CBS, and was the last Dr. Seuss special ...
''. In this segment, Hoober-Bloob babies don't have to be humans if they don't choose to be, so Mr. Hoober-Bloob shows them a variety of different animals; including ones from ''On Beyond Zebra!'' and ''
If I Ran the Zoo
''If I Ran the Zoo'' is a children's book written by Dr. Seuss in 1950.
The book is written in anapestic tetrameter, Seuss's usual verse type, and illustrated in Seuss's pen-and-ink style.
Plot
When young Gerald McGrew visits the zoo, he dis ...
'' (1950). Such animals include: a Jogg-oon, a Sneedle, a Zatz-it, a Wumbus, and a Yekko. The book was infrequently reprinted.
Open Library
Open Library is an online project intended to create "one web page for every book ever published". Created by Aaron Swartz, Brewster Kahle, Alexis Rossi, Anand Chitipothu, and Rebecca Malamud, Open Library is a project of the Internet Archive, ...
lists American editions in 1955, 1983, and 1999. A British edition was published in 2012.
Withdrawal from publication
On March 2, 2021, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, owner of the rights to Seuss's works, withdrew ''On Beyond Zebra!'' and five other books from publication because of imagery they deemed as "hurtful and wrong". The book depicts a character called “Nazzim of Bazzim”. Nazzim is "of unspecified nationality". He rides a "Spazzim", a fantasy-creature resembling a
camel
A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. C ...
. The ''
Vancouver Sun
The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. Published s ...
'' described the "problematic imagery" as "probably the least obvious" of the six books removed from publication.
Kyle Smith of the ''
National Review
''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief i ...
'' describes Nazzim as "a proud-looking camel-riding Arab nobleman." Smith argues that only someone "hypersensitive" would take offense at this image. Smith notes that the Dr. Seuss books as a whole have been accused of both overrepresenting white people, and of depicting non-white people in a "blithe comical sensibility".
According to an article of the ''
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the first newspaper published west of the All ...
'', Nazzim is a "vaguely Arab-looking character". According to Dan McLaughlin, the article's author, Nazzim appears on a single page, not the entire book. McLaughlin notes that Dr. Seuss' books have been accused of featuring too few non-white people, but the then-recent decision withdrew from publication the ones which do feature non-white people. He comments on the situation: "Damned if you do, damned if you don’t." He agrees that Nazzim's depiction is a vague stereotype of a foreign culture. He argues, however, that a conception of foreignness is necessary when introducing children to the idea that the world includes people with "different ways of life".
According to an article of ''
Distractify
''Distractify'' is an online publication and Internet media company launched in 2013 by Quinn Hu (also known as the YouTuber 2 Bucks), Yosef Lerner, and Jake Heppner. The company started as a social media startup for viral content and later branch ...
'', Nazzim "is a man who appears to be of Middle Eastern descent". The animal which he rides resembles a camel.
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
{{Dr. Seuss
American picture books
Books by Dr. Seuss
1955 children's books
Alphabet books
Random House books
Race-related controversies in literature
Stereotypes of Arab people