In honor of National Poetry Month, we’ve dug up a video of President Barack Obama reading a poetic Dr. Seuss story out loud.

As Obama prepared to read, he announced: “I am going to try to do the best rendition ever of Green Eggs and Ham.”

Do you think he accomplished his goal?

Random House Children’s Books will publish seven Dr. Seuss stories into a hardcover compilation. Seuss published these stories in magazines during the early 1950′s, but this will be the first time they appear in a book.

The collection will feature the following tales: “The Bear, the Rabbit, and the Zinniga-Zanniga,” “Gustav the Goldfish,” “Tadd and Todd,” “Steak for Supper,” “The Bippolo Seed,” “The Strange Shirt Spot,” and “The Great Henry McBride.”

Publisher’s Weekly reports: ”Random enhanced the color palette of each story, and an introduction by Seuss scholar and collector Charles D. Cohen explains the significance of these seven stories, not only as lost treasures, but as transitional stories in Dr. Seuss’s career that marked the beginnings of his new philosophy about writing for children.”

First Lady Michelle Obama (pictured, via) will kick off the 14th annual national Read Across America Day. Along with U.S. secretary of education Arne Duncan, she will read the Dr. Seuss classic, Green Eggs and Ham in honor of Seuss’ 107th birthday.  Actress Jessica Alba, Top Chef, TV host Padma Lakshmi, and Super Bowl champion Donald Driver will also appear.

Here’s more about the event from its official website: “[National Education Association] NEA’s Read Across America is an annual reading motivation and awareness program that calls for every child in every community to celebrate reading on March 2, the birthday of beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss. NEA’s Read Across America also provides NEA members, parents, caregivers, and children the resources and activities they need to keep reading on the calendar 365 days a year.”

Readers can log on to the site to make reading pledges. So far California boasts the most reading pledges  in the United States with 334 submissions. The site has also collected international pledges from readers in Brazil, Finland, Germany, and Turkmenistan.

Actor Danny DeVito will voice an orange environmentalist in an animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss‘ beloved book, The Lorax. The film joins a long list of Seuss adaptations: The Cat in the Hat, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, and Horton Hears a Who.

Zac Efron will play the human hero, Ted (named after Theodore Seuss Geisel), and Betty White will play his grandmother. The two villains will be voiced by Ed Helms and Rob Riggle. Helms will play Once-ler while Riggle will voice a new villainous creation.

The film will be shot in 3-D and release is tentatively set for 2012. The video embedded above shows a clip from the animated musical television special of The Lorax developed by CBS back in 1972.

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