3371. Sam I Am and Friend

Green Eggs and Ham is a best-selling and critically acclaimed book by Dr. Seuss (a pen-name of Theodor Seuss Geisel), first published on August 12, 1960. As of 2001, according to Publishers Weekly, it was the fourth-best-selling English-language children's book (novel) of all time.

A character known as "Sam I Am" pesters another character to taste the bizarre-looking titular dish. He declines, claiming to dislike the delicacy in question. However, the persistent Sam I Am will not cease following him around and trying to encourage him to try the green eggs and ham, asking him if he will sample the dish if he does it in various locations (like a boat or a house) and with an assortment of dining partners (like a goat or a mouse). At the end, the disgruntled character gives in to the nonstop nagging of Sam I Am and tires a bite of green eggs and ham, which he finds he does indeed like.

Green Eggs and Ham is one of Seuss's "Beginner Books", written in a very simple vocabulary for beginning readers.
The vocabulary of the text consists of just fifty different words and was the result of a bet between Seuss and Bennett Cerf (Dr. Seuss's publisher) that Seuss (after completing The Cat in the Hat using 225 words) could not complete an entire book using so few words.
The 50 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, you.

Green Eggs and Ham was first published on August 12, 1960, and became the fourth-best selling English-language children's hardcover book of all time. In 1999, the National Education Association conducted an online survey of children and teachers, seeking the 100 most popular children's books. On both the children's and the teachers' lists, Green Eggs and Ham was ranked third, just above another Dr. Seuss book, The Cat in the Hat.