Happy Birthday to You!

This article is about the Dr. Seuss book. For the traditional song, see Happy Birthday to You. For other uses, see Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday to You! is a 1959 children's book by Dr. Seuss, the first all-color picture book.^[1]

Happy Birthday to You!

Author	Dr. Seuss
Language	English
Genre	Children's literature
Publisher	Random House
Publication date	1959 (renewed in 1987)
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback)
Pages	64 pages
Preceded by	Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories
Followed by	One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

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Plot

It deals with a fantastic land called Katroo, where the Birthday Bird throws the reader an amazing party on their special day. It consists of a running description of a fantastical celebration, narrated in the second person, of the reader's birthday, from dawn to late night.

The celebration includes fantastical and colorful gifts, foods and a whirl of activities all arranged by the Birthday Bird for the reader's birthday. It focuses on the reader's self-actualization and concludes with the happy and exhausted reader falling blissfully asleep.

A popular Seuss paragraph in this book reads: "Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you".^[2]

Adaptations

Although Happy Birthday to You! was not directly adapted, The Birthday Bird appears in an episode of The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss.^[3]

The book is dedicated to the author's "good friends" and "The Children of San Diego County".^[4]