Do You Know What I'm Going to Do Next Saturday?

Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday? is a 1963 children's book published by Beginner Books and written by Helen Palmer Geisel, the first wife of Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss). Unlike most of the Beginner Books, Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday? did not follow the format of text with inline drawings, being illustrated with black-and-white photographs by Lynn Fayman, featuring a boy named Rawli Davis.^[1] It is sometimes misattributed to Dr. Seuss himself.^[2] The book's cover features a photograph of a young boy sitting at a breakfast table with a huge pile of pancakes.^[3]

The 62-page^[4] book became the subject of urban legends because some of the paragraphs from the book, when taken out of context, could be interpreted as references to suicide and violence. For example, the book contains the paragraph:

their fathers, too.^[2]

However, the accompanying photographs show a young boy playing tennis and volleyball, making clear that the passage is actually referencing athletic competition.^[2]

Likewise, the passage:

No one is going to stop me next Saturday.^[2]

is accompanied by a photograph of a boy playing a tuba, and is therefore not a reference to suicide, contrary to what at least one website has claimed.^[2]

Other activities mentioned in the book include bowling, water skiing,^[5] marching, boxing, and shooting guns with the United States Marines,^[6][7][8] and eating more spaghetti "than anyone else has eaten before.^[9]

Helen Palmer's photograph-based children's books did not prove to be as popular as the more traditional text-and-illustrations format; however, Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday received good reviews and was listed by the New York Times as one of the best children's books of 1963.^[2] The book is now out of print.^[10]

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