Three New Books for Kids Cause Wild Rumpus on the Web

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Since the introduction of books by Dr. Seuss ("Cat in the Hat"), Maurice Sendak ("Where the Wild Things Are") and Shel Silverstein ("Where the Sidewalk Ends"), childhood has never been the same.

These authors, who began careers in children's literature as long ago as the 1930s, each have a new offering out this month -- which has caused a wild rumpus with fans and a flurry of searches on the Web.

Children of all ages will be happy to hear that Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, has a book of short stories coming out: "The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories." These stories were previously only published in magazines from the 1950s.  According to a review in the New York Times, the newfound treasure "features the kinds of nonsense that blend right in with the Stinky Cheese Man and SpongeBob SquarePants."

Dr. Seuss -- not an actual doctor -- first used that name as a joke when he was a student at Dartmouth College. Before dying in 1991 at the age of 87, the scribe had penned 44 books that sold more than half a billion copies. The book that started it all, "And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street," was rejected 27 times before it was published. Searches on "dr. seuss biography," "dr seuss green eggs and ham," and "quotes by dr seuss" were all popular in the last week.

Twelve years since Shel Silverstein's death, the quirky writer of books like "The Giving Tree," is still giving. His new book of children's poetry, "Every Thing on It," features work, according to the Los Angeles Times, "culled from material Silverstein really liked but never found a place for in his other collections." Searches on Silverstein soared an astonishing 47,000% in one day on news of the new book.

Maurice Sendak, still producing at age 83, has published a children's book for the first time in 30 years, "Bumble-Ardy," about an orphaned pig's beastly birthday party. Searches for Sendak soared 12,000% in one day on word of the new work. Amazingly, 40 years after his book about "wild things" shocked parents, the children's book author is getting flak for his new book too. One reviewer on Amazon described the work as "disturbing."

Sendak told the New York Times it's the parents who are the "scaredy cats," not the kids.

Let the wild rumpus start.