fThe colorful imagination, creative rhymes that get parents tongue tied and illustrations of Dr. Seuss are American classics.

And today, his books such as "The Cat and the Hat," "Green Eggs and Ham" and "Fox in Socks" will be read all across the country for Dr. Seuss’ birthday in conjunction with Read Across America Day.

Theodor Seuss Geisel, or Dr. Seuss, was born March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Mass.

"Dr. Seuss had a tremendous impact," said Jeff Hubbard, president of the Georgia Association of Editors. "He helped teach children to read for the sheer sake of reading — for fun. And because his books are in a lot of ways, as you might say, nonsensical, he allowed children to read for more than just your academic and reading for class, and he was able to let them use their imaginations.

"The other great thing was, and a lot of people didn’t realize it for many years, Dr. Seuss actually made social commentary. So when you go back as adults and reread the books ... you can actually see that he was making some important statements."

One of the most famous Seuss books, "The Cat and the Hat," was the first book Seuss wrote and illustrated. In an unusual act of sharing, Houghton Mifflin and Random House asked Seuss to write the children’s primer using 220 new-reader vocabulary words. The end result was "The Cat in the Hat," according to Seussville.com.

Local schools will celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday today in various ways, from cooking green eggs and ham to having special guests read books to children.

"Enota will celebrate this day with the entire school sharing birthday cake in his honor," said Becky Parsons, media clerk at Enota Multiple Languages Academy. "Students are also encouraged to wear their Dr. Seuss-themed clothing."

Chicopee Woods Elementary has an Atlanta Falcons player coming to the school to read to the children, and Chestatee Middle School also will have guest readers.

One of the more interesting celebrations will be the performance of "Seussical the Musical" by the Gainesville City Schools that begins March 11.

The musical, which features many of the favorite Dr. Seuss characters, includes about 40 students from Gainesville High School and 40 from other schools in the system.

The National Education Association began the Read Across America program, which ends each year on Dr. Seuss’ birthday, to encourage year-round literacy and to motivate children by making reading fun along with encouraging parents to read at home with their children.

"(Reading at home) is one of the most crucial building blocks that we are finding to develop life-long learners and also successful readers," Hubbard said. "And what we really love about Read Across America is that we are trying to bring parents and children together to rediscover the joy of reading and to work on that parent-child relationship."

According to the NEA, there will be about 45 million participating in the 11th Read Across America Day. And even parents can get in on the fun.

"Parents are a child’s first teacher, and early exposure to reading has shown that children that have been exposed early do better in school later," said Elaine McCracken, assistant director for the youth services department at the Hall County Library. "There are always the classics that every child reads — Dr. Seuss, Eric Carle, titles like "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "The Cat and the Hat." Even "Curious George" is a favorite and when they grow up they want their children to read what they have read, so in addition to the new titles that come out, the classics like that are still popular."