This is an incredibly strange story. I thought going into it that the protagonist was going to engage in some typical Seussical high-jinx, and spend time putting tongue to tiger, but Seuss is using the fighting connotation of “to lick!” How old school, and entirely confusing for current generations. I can see why it’s not one of the Seuss books that gets talked about a lot, because essentially the story involves a posturing protagonist who is determined to beat up a bunch of tigers and then completely chickens out! We’re all for his eventual pacifism, but the story isn’t exactly a strong one. ( )

"I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today" features what appears to be the Cat in the Hat character thinking he can take on 30 tigers, but slowly reducing the number out of 'consideration' for the tigers, until he's left with only one.

Three short Seuss stories involving the Cat in the Hat's... family...

In "I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today," the Cat's son is full of bravado and wants to battle some tigers. Then, we visit with one of the Cat's ancestors in "King Looie Katz," who puts his subjects to work to keep his tail off the ground. Finally, in "The Glunk That Got Thunk," the Cat's daughter gets in some trouble with the power of her imagination.

That Glunk is a funky punk. ( )

a little boy goes around and says all the things that he will do (that are dangerous) but he ends up not doing any of them
1 book

This lesser known Dr. Seuss title contains three short stories: "I Can Like 30 Tigers Today!," "King Looie Katz," and "The Glunk That Got Thunk." I enjoyed all three stories, as did my babysitting charges, who wanted to hear this book several times over.

"I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today" features what appears to be the Cat in the Hat character thinking he can take on 30 tigers but slowly reducing the number out of 'consideration' for the tigers, until he's left with only one. The story is definitely a lot of fun and the repeating language of the diminishing number of tigers has a nice cadence for reading aloud. The language is fairly simple enough in this story for emerging readers to tackle on their own as well.

"King Looie Katz" is about a cat king who wants his washed and coiffed tail to be carried around for him by another cat, leading to an absurd situation in which every subsequent cat demands that their tail be held by another so it won't touch the ground. This ridiculous situation is also entertaining to little kids, but it might be a bit harder for younger children to read on their own. Luckily, it also has a good cadence for readalouds, although you might find your tongue tripping on all the Chooies, Kooies, and similarly named cats. The story contains oblique references to the French Revolution, which is a little odd but I found this to be a clever Easter egg personally. Kids, however, won't notice this at all unless you point it out and feel prepared to explain this moment in history to them.

"The Glunk That Got Thunk" returns to the Cat in the Hat character but focuses more on his sister who likes to sit up in her room and use her imagination to think up all kinds of things. One day she thinks extra hard and a wild creature called a Glunk appears from her thoughts and refuses to go away, causing chaos. This story is particularly funny to read aloud as you can do interesting voices for the sister and especially the Glunk. The text also seems the most typically Seussical, with rhyming text and silly made-up words thrown in with abandon. I like how it's an ode to the power of imagination, even the ability to come up with something scary at times. One of my babysitting charges who is a bit more skitterish did say that this story was a little creepy, but he did still like it and wanted to hear it more than once.

All in all, this is a book I would definitely recommend as silly and thereby engrossing to young children, especially as a readaloud book. ( )