 This article caught the attention of William Spaulding , who had met Geisel during the war and who was then the director of Houghton Mifflin 's education division . Spaulding had also read the best @-@ selling 1955 book Why Johnny Can 't Read by Rudolf Flesch . Flesch , like Hersey , criticized primers as boring but also criticized them for teaching reading through word recognition rather than phonics . In 1955 , Spaulding invited Geisel to dinner in Boston where he proposed that Geisel create a book " for six- and seven @-@ year olds who had already mastered the basic mechanics of reading " . He reportedly challenged , " Write me a story that first @-@ graders can 't put down ! " 
