8 /10 1 Votes
Country United States Publication date 1955 (renewed 1983) Preceded by Horton Hears a Who! Publisher Random House Illustrator Dr. Seuss | 4/5 Goodreads Language English OCLC 7715159 Originally published 1955 Genre Children's literature Followed by If I Ran the Circus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Media type Print (Hardcover and paperback) Similar Dr Seuss books, Alphabet books, Children's literature | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
On Beyond Zebra! is an illustrated children's book by Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. In this boundary-pushing take on the genre of alphabet book, Seuss presents, instead of the twenty-six letters of the conventional English alphabet, twenty more letters that purportedly follow them.
Contents
Plot
The young narrator, not content with the confines of the ordinary alphabet, reports on additional letters beyond Z, with a fantastic creature corresponding to each new letter. For example, the letter "FLOOB" corresponds to the Floob-Boober-Bab-Boober-Bubs, which have large buoyant heads and float serenely in the water. In order, the letters, followed by the creatures that correspond to them, are YUZZ (Yuzz-a-ma-Tuzz), WUM (Wumbus), UM (Umbus), HUMPF (Humpf-Humpf-a-Dumpfer), FUDDLE (Miss Fuddle-dee-Duddle), GLIKK (Glikker), NUH (Nutches), SNEE (Sneedle), QUAN (Quandary), THNAD (Thnadners), SPAZZ (Spazzim), FLOOB (Floob-Boober-Bab-Boober-Bubs), ZATZ (Zatz-it), JOGG (Jogg-oons), FLUNN (Flunnel), ITCH (Itch-a-pods), YEKK (Yekko), VROO (Vrooms), and HI! (High Gargel-orum). The book ends with an unnamed letter which is substantially more complicated than those with names. A list of all the additional letters is shown at the end.
Analysis
Judith and Neil Morgan, Geisel's biographers, note that most of the letters resemble elaborate monograms, "perhaps in Old Persian". These letters are not officially encoded in Unicode, but the independent ConScript Unicode Registry provides an unofficial assignment of code points in the Unicode Private Use Area for them.
Legacy
Some of the animals from On Beyond Zebra! appear in the 1975 CBS TV Special The Hoober-Bloob Highway, such as a Jogg-oon, a Sneedle, a Zatz-it, and a Wumbus.