As a writer for children and young adults, I can’t help but celebrate the genius of Dr. Seuss. But as an educator of anxious college graduates who often receive multiple copies of “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” as graduation gifts, I believe it’s time we diversify our books-for-grads, choosing texts whose challenges are less abstract than howling Hakken-Kraks, Giving Trees and Little Princes.
It’s a perennial and paradoxical phenomenon. At exactly the moment when America’s youth stand poised to grapple with the perils of real adulthood — when they are old enough to go to war or to finance a car — we inexplicably give them books for children.
By the time I graduated in May 1996, the infantilization of grads seemed a fait accompli, with Seuss’s “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” becoming a perennial fixture in the commencement season bestsellers list, and helping to set the standard for what a graduation gift book should look and sound like.
