I understand the point you're trying to make but you may have stepped in some oobleck here.
I am beginning to see this...too many Dr Seuss birthdays in the past ten years, there is no turning back.
OK. Suess is not a mediocre author.
LOL - no, he isn't, and bless you for saying so even if
One Fish, Two Fish has half driven you round the bend. I sympathize. Heckuva an illustrator, too. Pity his politics were occasionally immature. His PC environmentalist garbage
The Lorax or his denunciation of the arms race
The Butter Battle were eminently forgettable, IMHO, although the Jesse Jackson race hucksters take a beating in
The Sneetches, and
Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose is a cautionary tale about society's freeloaders. There's a fine line between propagandizing the kiddies and entertaining them.
I have to agree with you about history education, too, but reaching kids there is incredibly challenging. It's just tough for them to understand the importance of history when they've lived so little of it.