Random House Children’s Books will publish a rediscovered Dr. Seuss book called What Pet Should I Get?—the story of a brother and sister searching for a new member of the family, with illustrations included—on July 28.

The manuscript by the late author Theodor Geisel, who died at eighty-seven in 1991 and is known by many readers as “Dr. Seuss,” was initially found in a box in his La Jolla, California home by his wife, Audrey, shortly after his death. Then it was all but forgotten until a couple years ago when, in the fall of 2013, his wife and the author’s secretary and friend, Claudia Prescott, rediscovered the text and drawings among other unpublished work (an occurrence that seems to be happening with regularity these days).

“While undeniably special, it is not surprising to me that we found this because Ted always worked on multiple projects and started new things all the time—he was constantly writing and drawing and coming up with ideas for new stories,” Ms. Geisel said in a statement.

Mr. Geisel probably wrote What Pet Should I Get? at some point between 1958 and 1962 since it features the same brother and sister of One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (1960), said Random House associate publishing director Cathy Goldsmith.

Goldsmith will herself oversee the process of filling in Geisel’s black-and-white line drawings with color. “I know he is looking down, watching over the process, and I feel a tremendous responsibility to do everything just as he would have done himself,” she said.

Random House plans to release at least two more books based on the recently discovered materials, and has not yet announced their publication dates.

Photo credit: Random House Children's Books