A decades-old dictionary that you can still use today (and know that children will love it) is an amazing testament to the genius of the Seuss stable.

The roughly 12-per-page coloured drawings are dated, of course - the humans far more than the animals, funnily enough - but they've aged in a way that adds to their charm rather than detracting from it.

The 1,350 words are well balanced between the obvious stuff - common nouns and verbs - and more abstract language, from 'about' to 'yet'. Each word is accompanied by a drawing and an illustrative sentence.

Along the way, naturally, we meet a wacky menagerie of humans and animals: "Aaron the alligator making more machines," "Aunt Ada standing on her head," etc.