Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas Is Getting a Sequel

Random House will publish an official sequel to Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas this holiday season, telling a story that picks up one year after the events of the children's holiday classic. The follow-up, titled How the Grinch Lost Christmas!, is based on an original story from Alastair Heim, a writer who has had experience in the world of Dr. Seuss with books like If I Ran Your School and I am the Cat in the Hat. Seuss, whose real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel, passed away in 1991. During his life, Geisel saw his "Dr. Seuss" pen name grow into a massive children's brand. 

In addition to selling books, TV specials, and merchandise, Geisel helped launch the careers of other children's authors, including P.D. Eastman (Go Dog Go!) and Stan and Jan Berenstain (The Berenstain Bears series). Aristides Ruiz, who will illustrate the new book, has illustrated the Cat in the Hat's Learning Library books for more than two decades.

"One of the most asked questions we receive from Seuss fans of all ages is 'What do you think happened to the Grinch after he stole Christmas?" said Alice Jonaitis, executive editor at Random House Children's Books, in a statement to the Associated Press.

"All throughout writing the story, I couldn't fully believe that I was actually getting to play in the amazing creative sandbox Dr. Seuss created all those decades ago," Heim told the AP.

"When I heard of the opportunity to be a part of this project, I jumped at the chance only to find that it was difficult and daunting to approach adding to or expanding such an esteemed and treasured part of the American Christmas canon," Ruiz said.

This is the first original book set as an official sequel to How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, although it is hardly the first thing to follow up on the story. The 1957 book was first adapted for the screen in 1966, in a now-classic animated special. By 1977, it had become so popular that the same producers made a Halloween-themed prequel titled Halloween is Grinch Night. Four years later, The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat was released. While neither of those two specials were based on Seuss books, Dr. Seuss was credited as a writer and producer on both.

Subsequent adaptations of How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, stretched into feature-film length, took more liberties with the source material, which led to fleshing out the character's backstory and motivations in a way not explored in the original book. In 2000's Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas! from director Ron Howard, the Grinch was depicted as an outcast, who only became cruel because his early attempts to fit in with Who culture were met with ridicule. 2018's The Grinch similarly depicted him having a hard childhood, where he grew up unwanted and alone in an orphanage before heading to the mountains to get solitude on his own terms.

How the Grinch Lost Christmas!, is scheduled for release on September 5.