And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street is a 1937 picture book by Dr. Seuss. The book marked the author's debut into children's literature and set the stage for many beloved works to follow.
Marco, an imaginative schoolboy on his way home, turns a horse and cart into a marvelous story.
You can listen to an 1941 radio version
read by Sterling Holloway.
This book includes examples of the following tropes:
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: When Marco decides that a reindeer and a sleigh is too prosaic, he decides to make the cart-puller a huge blue elephant instead. Elephants do not come in blue.
- Big Fun: Marco eventually turns the horse into a large, mighty elephant with eyes full of fun.
- Book Ends: The story begins with Marco noting that despite obeying his father's instructions to keep his eyes open, all he's noticed on his trip home is a horse and a wagon on Mulberry Street. After Marco spends most of the book imagining something more exciting, the end shows him telling his father about the horse and wagon.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Marco's father warns him not to make up wild stories.
- Genial Giraffe: When Marco decides he's too heavily loaded the elephant in his story, he gives him two smiling giraffes as helpers.
- Imagine Spot: Almost the whole book takes place inside Marco's head as the horse and wagon he saw on his way home morphs into a grand parade.
- Mr. Imagination: According to the beginning of the book, Marco's invention of a spectacular scene from something commonplace isn't an isolated instance. His father scolds him for seeing nonexistent things and telling wild stories.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Marco turns a horse and cart into a fanciful parade in his mind.
- Pull a Rabbit out of My Hat: When Marco adds a magician to the parade he's imagining, said magician appears wearing a tuxedo and pulling rabbits from his top hat.
