Bird, Elizabeth (July 6, 2012). "Top 100 Picture Books Poll Results". A Fuse #8 Production. Blog. School Library Journal (blog.schoollibraryjournal.com). Archived from the original on December 4, 2012 . Retrieved August 19, 2012. Sam is a man with a mental age of 7 who is well adjusted and has a great support system consisting of four similarly developmentally disabled men. His neighbor Annie (Dianne Wiest), a piano-player and agoraphobe, befriends Sam and takes care of Lucy when Sam can't. Sam-I-Am appeared as a recurring character in season two of The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, performed here by John Kennedy. In one episode of the show, Sam assists the Cat in the Hat and his Little Cats with their indoor picnic by preparing his special jumbo green ham and cheese sandwich.

The film won the inaugural Stanley Kramer Award from the Producers Guild of America, and was nominated for the Humanitas Prize and the Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Foreign Language Film. A journey of self-discovery forms the basis of this wonderful first chapter book, I Am Sam, by Rodney James. Sam has always felt different from the rest of his family, resulting in some awkwardness between them. It doesn’t help that he’s a bit clumsy and three times the size of his siblings, although to be fair, Sam is also the best fish catcher in the village. Sam knows that his mother and the rest of his family love him but he’s determined to figure out why he’s different so one day, he says goodbye to his family and sets out on an epic journey to discover who he is. Sam is soon meeting new creatures like owls and lizards along the way but it isn’t until he meets two dogs, George and Harley, whose job it is to guard the local zoo where they live that Sam’s journey comes to an abrupt end… In danger of losing child custody, Sam gets advice from his friends and also hires a lawyer, Rita Harrison, whose absorption in her work and neglect of her son reveals her to also struggle with her role as a parent. In an attempt to prove that she is not cold, Rita agrees to take on Sam's case pro bono. As they work to secure Sam's rights, Sam helps Rita see her own life anew. This includes encouraging her to leave her philandering husband and repair her fractious relationship with her son. Green Eggs and Ham was published on August 12, 1960. [6] [7] By 2001, it had become the fourth-best selling English-language children's hardcover book yet written. [8] [9] As of 2014, [update] the book has sold 8 million copies. In 1999, the National Education Association (NEA) conducted an online survey of children and teachers, seeking the 100 most popular children's books. The children ranked Green Eggs and Ham third, just above another Dr. Seuss book, The Cat in the Hat. [10] The teachers ranked it fourth. [11] Teachers ranked it fourth again in a 2007 NEA poll. [12] Scholastic Parent & Child magazine placed it #7 among the "100 Greatest Books for Kids" in 2012. [13] That same year, it was ranked number 12 among the "Top 100 Picture Books" in a survey published by School Library Journal – the first of five Dr. Seuss books on the list. [14] Woman reading and showing Green Eggs and Ham to children. Parent & Child 100 Greatest Books for Kids" (PDF). Scholastic Corporation. 2012 . Retrieved March 25, 2013.

I Am Sam (United States, 2001)

Green Eggs and Ham is unique in that it was written on a bet. Dr. Seuss' editor, Bennett Cerf, bet him that he couldn’t write a book using only 50 words. This was no small feat because, by comparison, the relatively simple Cat in the Hat had used about 225. I Am Sam (stylized in all lowercase) is a 2001 American drama film co-written and directed by Jessie Nelson, it stars Sean Penn, Dakota Fanning, Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dianne Wiest, Loretta Devine, Richard Schiff, and Laura Dern. Sam-I-Am offers a man a plate of green eggs and ham. However, he tells Sam that he hates this food. Throughout the story, Sam further asks him to eat this food in various locations (house, box, car, tree, train, dark, rain, boat) and with various animals (mouse, fox, goat), but is still rebuffed. Finally, Sam-I-Am offers the man to try them, and he tastes the colorful delicacy in hopes Sam-I-Am will leave him alone. When the man tries the dish, he happily declares that the dish is quite tasty. With a better plot, I Am Sam might work, but it glosses over reality on so many occasions that it's hard to take seriously. Despite the high-profile nature of the cast, I had the feeling that I was watching one of those made-for-TV weepers that show up with alarming regularity on cable TV's Lifetime Network. From the supposedly heart-wrenching drama of the separation of father and daughter to the courtroom scenes, this is pure soap opera - not a promising way for Jessie Nelson to return to directing after a seven-year absence (her previous credit, which was her feature debut, was Corrina, Corrina). She is clearly relying upon audiences being swept away on a tide of emotion so overwhelming that concerns about the intelligence and logic of the movie become irrelevant. Unfortunately, I Am Sam doesn't possess anything close to the degree of power necessary for that to happen. During the trial, however, Sam breaks down, after being convinced that he is not capable of taking care of Lucy.

A. O. Scott of the New York Times wrote that " I Am Sam is not a bad movie, and its intentions are unimpeachable. But its sentimentality is so relentless and its narrative so predictable that the life is very nearly squeezed out of it." [8] Variety wrote: "Undone by its best intentions, I Am Sam is an especially insipid example of the Hollywood message movie". [9] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that "every device of the movie's art is designed to convince us Lucy must stay with Sam, but common sense makes it impossible to go the distance with the premise." [10] Ebert also criticized the morality tale character of the movie, saying that "you can't have heroes and villains when the wrong side is making the best sense." [10] Dr. Seuss won that bet. This book uses only 50 words, all of which are found in this highlighted paragraph, which are: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, and you. Green Eggs and Ham is a children's book by Dr. Seuss, first published on August 12, 1960. As of 2019, the book has sold 8 million copies worldwide. [1] The story has appeared in several adaptations, starting with 1973's Dr. Seuss on the Loose starring Paul Winchell as the voice of both characters, and more recently an animated TV series of the same name on Netflix (which also gave the originally unnamed character Sam pesters the name "Guy-Am-I"). Dr. Seuss: Green Eggs and Ham is a single-player video game for Game Boy Advance based on the 1960 book of the same name, and was published by NewKidCo and released in November 2003. [29] [30] The book was also made into a Living Books adaptation for the PC in 1996, and there were similar differences to reflect the new media such as Sam-I-Am sings his opening lines.Never trust a serious drama that uses a line from a Dr. Seuss book as its title. I Am Sam (inspired by a line from "Green Eggs and Ham"), despite boasting interesting character relationships, stumbles and falls because of a storyline that consistently overlooks real-life situations when it isn't pandering to the needs of those who want every screenplay to be constructed from cliches. Of course, there's also the problem of overt manipulation - subtlety is not one of this film's hallmarks - but that's to be expected from any motion picture that so obviously wants to be regarded as a tear-jerker.