A sequel to Dr Seuss’s 1957 book How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is to be published later this year.
How the Grinch Lost Christmas!, written by Alastair Heim and illustrated by Aristides Ruiz, will pick up one year after the action of the original. It is an official sequel but not based on anything from the archive of Theodor Geisel, AKA Dr Seuss.
The new book will mark the first time the Grinch narrative has been expanded beyond the original book. Susan Brandt, president and CEO of Dr Seuss Enterprises, the company that preserves and protects the author’s legacy, said that the move to extend the story had been “carefully considered”.
The story of the Grinch remains popular despite controversy surrounding Dr Seuss. In 2021 it was announced that publication of six books by the author would cease because of their racist and insensitive portrayal of people of colour.
The books – And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super! and The Cat’s Quizzer – were pulled by Dr Seuss Enterprises after feedback from teachers, specialists and academics.
How the Grinch Lost Christmas! will feature the Grinch trying to prove to the Whos that he has grown to love the festive season, devising a plan to win Who-ville’s Christmas Crown by making a spectacular Christmas tree.
Juliet Matthews, colour publisher at HarperCollins Children’s Books, said the book would be a “new and exciting addition to the Dr Seuss canon”.
Heim has written other Dr Seuss-themed books including I Am the Cat in the Hat, while Ruiz has illustrated the Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library books for more than two decades.
The author of dozens of books, Seuss died in 1991. According to Forbes magazine he was the eighth highest-earning dead celebrity in 2022, making $32m including $16m in book sales as well as money from a Netflix deal and merchandising.
The new book will be published on 5 September in the UK. The original Grinch book, which has sold millions of copies around the world, was adapted for a live-action film starring Jim Carrey in 2000 and again for an animated in 2017 with Benedict Cumberbatch.
