The Cat in the Hat Comes Back is a 1958 children's book written and illustrated by American author Theodor Geisel under his pen name Dr. Seuss.
In the book, the Cat in the Hat leaves a pink stain in the bathtub and spreads it around the house while cleaning it.
The book uses under 300 distinct words with a plot inspired by Geisel's earlier story "The Strange Shirt Spot" (1951).
It reuses several aspects of The Cat in the Hat, such as poor weather preventing the children from playing and the absence of an adult figure.
[2] He incorporated elements of his short story "The Strange Shirt Spot" (1951) when writing The Cat in the Hat Comes Back.
He immediately began working on Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories while The Cat in the Hat Comes Back was prepared for publication.
This design had the title printed in blue text, used the original Beginner Books logo, and erroneously had the Cat wearing a white bowtie instead of a red one.
[16] Subsequent editions used a solid blue background and the updated Beginner Books logo, which itself featured the Cat.
and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, where exclamation points appeared on the cover but were omitted on the title page.
Like the original, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back begins with the children unable to play, but it is because they are busy shoveling snow outside instead of rain keeping them inside.
[18] The Cat's tone shifts from one of carelessness in the first book, saying that their mother will not mind his antics, to deception as he tells the children their parents will never know of his actions.
[24] The Cat in the Hat Comes Back explores how different spellings can produce the same sounds with the words "news", "shoes", "use", and "whose".
[29] Einhorn compared the Voom to atomic energy and the pink stain as communism, both of which were major concerns of the world at the time of publication.
[31] The Cat in the Hat Comes Back was published amid the Red Scare, and academics such as Robert Coover, Louis Menand, and Philip Nel have compared the pink spots to communism, either in the context of the Cat spreading communism or using the Voom as an atomic weapon to destroy it.
The children are drawn at a distance from the Cat as he enters so that it is a greater challenge to stop him, and Sally's shovel is positioned in a way that snow is about to drop from it onto her head.
[9] The little cats are quicker to express their mischievous nature as well, with a draft showing them leap over Sally's head out the door before they begin playing in the snow.
[24] One of the playing cats uses a device identical to the FLIT insecticide for which Geisel created had a popular advertising campaign in 1928.
[39] The bird becomes happy again after the snow is cleaned, presenting a common technique of Geisel's to have silent observers indicate the emotional tone of the scene.
[42] Warren T. Greenleaf of the National Association of Elementary School Principles said that The Cat in the Hat Comes Back is among Geisel's strongest books in terms of plot structure.
[4] A list published by The New York Times placed The Cat in the Hat Comes Back as the 7th best-selling children's book in the year of its release.
[44] The Cat in the Hat Comes Back ranked 26th in a 2001 list by Publishers Weekly of all-time best-selling children's hardcover books in the United States.