The Cat in the Hat Heloise P. Mailloux wrote in "The Horn Book Magazine", "This is a fine book for remedial purposes, but self-conscious children often refuse material if its seems meant for younger children." She felt that the book's limited vocabulary kept it from reaching "the absurd excellence of early Seuss books". Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association named "The Cat in the Hat" one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children". In 2012 it was ranked number 36 among the "Top 100 Picture Books" in a survey published by "School Library Journal" – the third of five Dr.
The Cat in the Hat for the series, including "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back" (1958), "Green Eggs and Ham" (1960), "Hop on Pop" (1963), and "Fox in Socks" (1965). He initially used word lists of limited vocabularies to create these books, as he had with "The Cat in the Hat", but moved away from the lists as he came to believe "that a child could learn any amount of words if fed them slowly and if the books were amply illustrated". Other authors also contributed notable books to the series, including "A Fly Went By" (1958), "Sam and the Firefly" (1958), "Go, Dog.