Dr. Seuss’s “The Lorax” and my son when he was three years old

When my son Miles was three years old, and my mother was visiting us in Basel, he asked her to read him "The Lorax", by Dr. Seuss. But they couldn't find our copy of the book it was in (a collection of Seuss stories that did not say "The Lorax" on the cover). My mother knew he had heard the story often, so she asked him to recite it to her: "I bet you know it by heart." Then he reeled off line and line of the book, until he stumbled two-thirds of the way through, lost the thread, and despaired: "I'm sorry, Grandma, I don't know 'The Lorax' by heart." (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 6 September 2024)