Neha Shah might have green eggs and ham running through her veins.

The Sunflower School fourth-grader — like many children today and many who preceded her — is a big fan of Dr. Seuss books.

And Neha pledges the love of Seussville won’t stop with her generation.

“My kids WILL read them,” the 9-year-old said.

Today is the 100th anniversary of Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel’s birth. Children across Lawrence and the nation will be celebrating by reading the sing-songy rhymes and dressing in red-and-white- striped hats, la “The Cat in the Hat.”

Geisel died in 1991.

Neha and her fellow participants in Sunflower’s after-school program got a jump-start on the fun Monday, when a group of Kansas University students visited to read them Seuss books.

For Ian Hierl, a second-grader, it doesn’t get any better than “O, Say Can You Say?”

“It has lots of tongue-twisters,” he said.

Sunflower School kindergartner Jack Ryan is crowned with a Dr. Seuss hat made out of a paper plate. Students at the school crafted the hats and were read various Dr. Seuss stories Monday to commemorate what would be Dr. Seuss' 100th birthday, which is today.

Tanner Smith, a first-grader, said all the books made him laugh.

“I think they’re sort of silly,” he said.

The books may be silly, but they’re not all just fun and games, said Joyce Steiner, youth services coordinator at Lawrence Public Library. For instance, she said, “The Lorax” stresses environmental stewardship. “Horton Hears A Who!” and “Horton Hatches The Egg” teach about being kind.

“They tend to have some point to them,” Steiner said. “Even ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ — how do you know if you don’t try it?”

Steiner said the Lawrence Public Library had at least one copy of each of Seuss’ 40 books. The most popular are generally “The Cat in the Hat,” the “Horton” books and “Green Eggs and Ham,” though most of the books have been checked out in recent weeks as the Seuss centennial approached.

Welcome to Seussville!

“They’re kind of gone all the time,” she said. “They’re still read, and I think part of it is that parents like to share them with their kids, and the cycle continues.”

Philip Nel, an English professor at Kansas State University and author of a new book, “Dr. Seuss: American Icon,” said Seuss’ heroes were rebels and underdogs.

“They go against the grain,” he said. “They don’t do what they’re expected to do.”

Part of Seuss’ charm was his ability to make the ordinary into the extraordinary.

“‘Ham and eggs’ is just ordinary, but if you turn it around so that it’s ‘eggs and ham,’ that’s interesting,” Nel said. “And then if you make it green, there’s real genius. He gives us a world that is both familiar and strange. … There’s something brilliant in the way he does that.”

— The Associated Press contributed information to this report.