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 "My Hassle With the First Grade Language", he also told a story of the "three excruciatingly painful weeks" in which he worked on a story about a King Cat and a Queen Cat. However, "queen" was not on the word list, nor did his first grade nephew, Norval, recognize it. So Geisel returned to the work but could then think only of words that started with the letter "q", which did not appear in any word on the list. He then had a similar fascination with the letter "z", which also did not appear in any word on the list.