Counting down to America’s Semiquincentennial, Random House Children’s Books has unveiled Sing the 50 United States!—a picture book by Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss—to be published in June 2026. Editors discovered this rhyming celebration of the United States, a mnemonic name game emceed by the Cat in the Hat, among Ted Geisel’s personal papers at University of California San Diego’s Geisel Library.
In Sing the 50 United States! the Cat in the Hat and the small cats first introduced in The Cat in the Hat Comes Back (1958) do their best to recall every state, getting stuck along the way but finally listing each one. Illustrator Tom Brannon, an expert at channeling Geisel’s antic, springy style, has paired visuals with the author’s words.
Sing will also include a US map on the inside of the dust jacket, as well as backmatter about turning Geisel’s initial sketches and written draft into a finished book.
Random House plans to partner with the nonprofit educational network First Book for a backpack build, which will send students home with a copy of Sing and other Seuss titles. A back-to-school celebration of Sing will take place in Washington, DC, in 2026, and a song based on the book will be released close to the publication date.