Somehow, I don’t know how, despite this book being practically the book to give as a gift to people when they graduate from anywhere, and loving Dr. Seuss since childhood, I’ve gone my entire life without having actually read Oh, The Places You’ll Go. I think I partly avoided it purposefully, feeling it was too much of a cliche to read. Or something along those lines. Like, if I avoided it this far, maybe it wasn’t meant to be read by me. I don’t know why I let myself get in that elitist headspace, but I did. Then I found what looked like a mint-condition copy at a local thrift store and said “I’d buy that for a dollar!” (well, $1.99). Dr. Seuss books aren’t cheap, and I wasn’t going to let my weird bias against this one prevent me from adding to my slowly growing Dr. Seuss collection for a measly $1.99, as opposed to the $18.99 retail it lists on the back.
Having now read it, I’m glad somebody decided to donate their seemingly unused copy, probably received as one of those graduation gifts. This is possibly Dr. Seuss’s most normal and adult work, at least of what I’ve read. There’s some made-up words here and there, but it’s mostly just surprisingly solid life advice told in a pleasant rhyme, and accompanied by lovely illustrations, as per usual. I hate to say it, but now I could see myself gifting this book to a graduation senior, while simultaneously hating myself for being cliche as all get out. Hey, sometimes cliches are cliches for good reason, you know? Don’t sleep on this book because of its omnipresence like I did. It’s one of Dr. Seuss’s best.