A 1954 Life magazine article titled "Why Johnny Can't Read" argued that the "Dick and Jane" books that most schools depended on were just too boring. The books had no real story—just illustrations of children and simple words repeated over and over. All of these books looked and sounded alike. Someone needed to break the mold.

A man named William Spaulding, the director of Houghton Muffin's education division, read that Life magazine article and then approached his friend Ted. Spaulding issued Ted a challenge: "write me a story that first graders can't put down."

Ted was a talented artist with a few children's books in publication, but at the time, he was better known for a few advertising cartoons he'd done for Ford, NBC, and Standard Oil. But he saw an opportunity to use his gifts and talents to rethink children's books and help them learn to read. Ted claimed that if he could find words that rhymed he could write a story that would captivate children. Finally, he found the two words that would form the core of his book—cat and hat.

When Ted Geisel (also known as Dr. Seuss) published The Cat in the Hat in 1957, children's literature was changed dramatically for the better. It had wacky illustrations, interesting characters, and a real story with tension and resolution. Children and parents loved it. The book started a revolution in early readers, helped promote phonics as a reading movement to replace rote memorization, and began the slow decline of those dull early readers. Good-bye, Dick and Jane. Hello, Cat.