El gato en el sombrero/ The Cat In The Hat :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

Horrible, useless

2005-01-01
Not only does this lose all the wit and charm of the original, it's not even very good as a Spanish primer. I can't imagine a real Spanish speaker using this kind of convoluted syntax. If you're looking for a fun Spanish children's book to read, then "Huevos Verdes con Jamon" (Green Eggs and Ham) is a much better choice, as well as many of the other Aida Marcuse translations. If what you want is a good vocabulary-builder transliteration, try the Spanish versions of P.D. Eastman's Books ("Corre, Perro Corre!" or "Eres tu Mi Mama?"). Anything but this.

To Seuss or not?

2004-10-10
Before you buy this book -- use the "view it online option".

As the conflicting opinions point out:

1) It has neither rhyme nor rythm in Spanish (e.g., it is not a Dr. Seuss book but a literal translation.

2) If you want a faithful translation it seems to do that

My opinion: There are plenty of parallel, side by side, etc. story books and the fun of Seuss is lost.

But if you LOOK at the view it online, then you can decide if it meets your needs.

Painful to read

2003-11-25
I must agree with several of the other reviews. This book was translated with no thought to rhyme or flow. That's part of what makes Dr. Seuss books attractive to kids. It is a joy to read the translated version of "Green eggs & ham", but the "Cat in the hat" is positively painful.

I agree with Ms. Denise Caramagno

2003-09-28
The spanish version of this book is pathetic. We also have "Huevos verdes con jamon" (Green eggs with ham) in spanish and it is delighful to read it.

At least, in this edition you still have the english version to read.

I think this book needs a re-edition with a more accurate translation.

El gato en el sombrero/The Cat in The Hat 2002-04-27
When I first bought this book in Spanish (many years ago) the translation was so awful that I wrote the publishers begging them to improve future editions. I recently saw the book again and not a word has been changed-it's still a abomination.

Teacher's two thumbs down 2008-03-02
The translation of this book is horrible! It is literally translated and doesn't even rhyme. Dr. Seuss would be very disappointed!!!

Try "Huevos verdes con jamón".

No Spanish rhyme, but still worthwhile 2007-04-09
Even though the Spanish portions don't rhyme, I still found the book a worthwhile tool for working with those gaining proficiency in reading the Spanish language. Because it doesn't go to lengths to make it rhyme, the English concepts are easier for beginners to find in the Spanish wording, and the words are easier to grasp the meaning of without a dictionary.

The 1st part is great, but... 2007-03-03
I remember buying and trying to read this book as a young whippersnapper, so I thought I would pick it up for my nephew as a reward for keeping his pants up at school. After receiving this book in the mailbox (I prefer not to use e-lectric mail since I don't trust the darn thing), I realized this is not the same book that was printed 46 years ago. The first part is great and all, but I definitely do not remember the 2nd part. This might be some of Seuss' most eccentric work. Most of the words don't make sense, and don't even correlate to the illustrations. I guess the proofreaders came to work drunk the day they read this pile of horsefeathers. The book blatantly reuses the same illustrations from the first part of the book (as filler I guess), and there's all sorts of spelling errors. I even saw an upside down exclamation point. How'd they miss that one, let alone type it? I don't see that key on my typewriter. I'm not sure if they thought kids would get this far in the book or not. Yes, I understand how the world works these days; everyone's out to make a buck, but come on, they obviously added a bunch of incoherent filler pages so they could charge a premium for the book. The children are your CUSTOMERS, and you just ripped them off, Mr. Seuss.

The worst translation I've ever seen 2005-08-05
This is a put-down to the Spanish language. It is literally translated- word-for-word, and obviously that does not work with any kind of translation. The translator has to use his/her discretion to transmit the message through whatever type of medium they are working with. In this case, Dr. Seuss's writing is playful and rhyming- this translation does not do this book any justice. They should really never have published this. Even as a non-native speaker of Spanish, I know that this translation is not well-done. My suggestion-- go read "Huevos verdes con jamon", which is wonderful.

AWFUL TRANSLATION!!! 2005-02-10
We first bought "Huevos Verdes con Jamon" an excellent translation of "Green Eggs and Ham." The translator, Aida E. Marcuse, managed to play with the wording to retain the "Seussian" rhyme, rhythm, and whimsy. Based on that, we bought this bilingual edition without inspecting it first--big mistake!

I am an Anglo-American who learned Spanish as an adult, and I could have done this translation. Carlos Rivera's translation looks like he took a English-Spanish dictionary and went through the text line by line, translating each word in turn. The result is clunky, non-rhyming, and completely devoid of the charm so characteristic of Dr. Seuss's works. A child exposed to this book might come to think of Spanish as a dull, clunky language compared to the fun English text. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Spanish is much easier to rhyme than English, so this translation makes no sense whatsoever.

My suggestion to Random House: call Aida E. Marcuse and get her to do the same quality translation for "El Gato Ensombrerado" that she did for "Huevos Verdes con Jamon."