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Perhaps his most popular book ever, Seuss’ “The Cat in the Hat” beat “The Poky Little Puppy,” “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” and “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” which all tied for second place. The headwear-loving feline doubled the victories of these other books. That said, each of the top four books did quite well considering only seven books won in more than two states total. Specifically, six books won two states, and 10 books won just one state. And don’t forget that that leaves 21 books from the original list with no state wins at all!
One thing that stands out when you look into the numbers is the publishing dates of the most popular books overall. Out of the four most popular children’s books in the U.S., three were published in 1957 or earlier, while “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” was published in 1985.
This makes sense, as books that have had a longer time to sell have also had a longer time to be read and connected with, and all three of “The Cat in the Hat,” “Harold and the Purple Crayon” and “The Poky Little Puppy” sharing an age of somewhere between 60 and 70 years old indicates that these classics have likely been passed down by one or even two whole generations already!