PBS to animate 'Cat in the Hat'

NEW YORK, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Children know and love the Dr. Seuss book "The Cat in the Hat," but until now there's never been an animated children's TV series, his former editor says.

Starting Monday, PBS will begin airing a series based on Theodor Geisel's wildly popular children's book, calling it "The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That," the New York Daily News reported.

Geisel's last editor, Kate Klimo, said the cartoonist accomplished his goal of encouraging children to read, and later wanted to help them learn about science.

"Ted wanted to deploy the Cat to turn kids on to science. His great fear was that American kids were falling behind the rest of the world," Klimo said.

Being a children's program, she said, "the series won't be technical, but will focus on how simple things work."

Now the publisher of Random House Children's books, Klimo developed the series for PBS. She said "The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That" began as a series of books, and its popularity resulted in the development of the TV series.

"We wanted to instill in kids a love of science without boring them senseless," Klimo said.

Geisel died in 1991. Klimo said she thinks he would be happy with the new programs.

Actor Martin Short will be the voice of the "cat."