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Oh, the Places You'll Go!
Oh, the Places You'll Go! is a book written and illustrated by children's author Dr. Seuss. It was first published by Random House on January 22, 1990, making it his last book published in his lifetime. The book concerns the journey of life and its challenges.
Though written in the style of classics such as Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat, Oh, the Places You’ll Go! has many specific characters including a narrator and the reader. A young boy, referred to simply as "you", initiates the action of the story. However, the presence of a main character helps readers to identify with the book. It is written in second person and uses future tense.
The story begins with the narrator, relating the decision of the unnamed protagonist (who represents the reader) to leave town. The protagonist travels through several geometrical and polychromatic landscapes and places, eventually encountering a place simply called "The Waiting Place", which is ominously addressed as being a place where everyone is always waiting for something to happen. As the protagonist continues to explore, spurred on by the thoughts of places he will visit and things he will discover, the book cheerfully concludes with an open end.
Upon its original release in 1990, Oh, the Places You'll Go! reached number one on The New York Times Best-Selling Fiction Hardcover list. That made Dr. Seuss one of the handful of authors to have number one Hardcover Fiction and Nonfiction books on the list; among them are John Steinbeck, Jimmy Buffett and Mitch Albom; his You're Only Old Once hit number one on the Nonfiction list in 1986.
In the United States and Canada, Oh, the Places You'll Go! is a popular gift for students graduating from high school and college, spiking in sales every spring. It reached number one on USA Today's Best Selling Book list in 1997, and reached #2 in 2015 and 2017. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association named the book one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children."