McElligot's Pool (by Dr. Seuss)

Imaginative Marco fishes patiently in McElligot's Pool, a cow pond with a lot of potential. The boy believes an underground brook connects McElligot's Pool with the sea. Via this route, he explains to a skeptical farmer, countless fantastic, finny creatures are sure to find their way to Marco's hook. Lovely watercolor illustrations earned Dr. Seuss his first Caldecott Honor Award.

This is among the most beautiful of Dr. Seuss' books. In lovingly painted watercolors, he renders underwater scenes in swirling blues, grays, and greens, and in one two-page picture, a lovely little city of pastel buildings and telephone poles nestles among rolling green hills beside a blue-gray ocean. Beneath the city, the sea flows in a subterranean channel straight to McElligot's Pool (for literate fish, there's a handy sign pointing the way).

Despite its beauty, MCELLIGOT'S POOL is a little flat compared with other Dr. Seuss books. Apart from the farmer's good-natured jeers, the story contains little conflict. Another reason for the comparative lack of vitality might be that Dr. Seuss' invented creatures still resemble real ones. And in this book, Dr. Seuss' wordplay had not yet reached the exuberant pitch it later achieved.