About the Name

Solla Sollew is a fictional city conjured up by Dr. Seuss where there are no troubles (or at least very few) on the beautiful banks of the river Wah-Hoo. In the book, our protagonist suddenly begins having all sorts of trouble in his life, from the green-headed Quilligan Quail biting his tail to the Skritz stinging his neck and the Skrink biting his toe. When the driver of the One Wheel Wubble comes along and invites him to Solla Sollew to escape all of his woes, he only thinks for a minute before it’s off he goes.

(Side note: once you start writing about Dr. Seuss books, rhyming is irresistible.)

The journey to the far-off land takes some 30+ pages and is fraught with all kinds of struggles, but our little critter endures, and finally reaches the shining city gates. There he is met by a welcoming doorman who tells him that Solla Sollew has only one trouble, a pesky Slippard who moved into the lock and bats out the key of all who seek entry. Now out of the job, he is moving on to the city of Boola Boo Ball, on the banks of the beautiful river Woo-Wall, known to never have troubles (“No troubles at all!!”). He welcomes our critter to join him, but here’s where the book becomes somewhat controversial and why it is not more well-known. Our little guy starts to realize that life is fraught with trouble and you can’t always run away from it (fine, true) so instead he starts charging back down the hill with a bat yelling, “But I’ve bought a big bat. I’m all ready, you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!” (yaaa… not so popular with the parents).

I wish we could take credit for it as our boat name, but the previous owner’s kids named her. Once Harry learned the story he was hooked, and later when I came into the picture I was too. Parents might not be down with the whole inciting violence bit, but a boat where there are no troubles or at least very few? PERFECT.

Bonus: Donny Osmond wrote and performed “Solla Sollew” for the Dr. Seuss Broadway Musical (aka the Seussical). It’s awful and wonderful all at the same time – listen here.

Source: Wikipedia
All images most definitely under copywrite with Dr. Seuss.