Oceanhouse Media, Inc., is a start-up that is barely two years old. But the Encinitas-based firm is making plenty of noise in the world of developing and publishing applications for the mobile market.

And Dr. Seuss has plenty to do with this success. The forever endearing works and characters such as "Cat In The Hat," "Green Eggs and Ham," "Fox In Socks" and "Yertle the Turtle" have been educating and entertaining children for decades in book form. Adults love them as well.

Showing that the Dr. Seuss brand remains strong after over 70 years, Oceanhouse offers over 150 apps, and the Dr. Seuss books-on-app items are its top sellers. No wonder the firm surpassed the one million mark in paid app downloads on the App store in January.

"It's taken off faster than we've expected," said Michel Kripalani, a Montreal native, University of California, San Diego graduate and Oceanhouse Media founder and president. "I'm thankful and grateful the way things are going. I'm happy with the way things are."

Added Oceanhouse public relations specialist Cathy Veloskey, "We're very privileged to be a San Diego company to have the rights to publish (Dr. Seuss) apps to a new generation of readers. Kids get to use it, parents get to use it, it's nice to see.Green Eggs and Ham is Green Eggs and Ham."

That a local company secured the rights to the Dr. Seuss works isn't that surprising. Seuss, who was born Theodor Seuss Geisel and died in 1991 at 87, had deep roots in the community. Geisel lived in La Jolla for many years, and his widow, Audrey, heads Dr. Seuss Enterprises, which oversees his works.

The Geisels have been the biggest donator to the UCSD libraries, and the campus' main library bears the family name.

Even though Kripalani was a UCSD alumnus and on the library's advisory board, thus giving him an "in" with Audrey Geisel, Oceanhouse's securing the rights to Seuss was hardly a slam dunk, not with many bigger, more established companies trying to get in on the action.

Neverthless, one thing was clear to Kripalani: Any app that even faintly tarnished the legacy of one of the most significant vehicles for promoting children's literacy the country has ever seen wouldn't stand a chance.

"I told them, if you give me 30 minutes of your time, I'll show you what I can do," Kripalani said.

It worked, and the founder of Presto Studios, an independent video game development company, and MOOV design, which developed and programmed the world's first interactive multimedia magazine, entered the Cat In The Hat business.

Geisel, whose first book, And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street was published in 1937 (a previous effort in 1931 wasn't published), penned 44 Dr. Seuss books. Oceanhouse has 20 of the books on apps, for use with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Green Eggs and Ham is the best-selling Seuss title.

"It's an incredible honor and an incredible amount of responsibility," said Kripalani. "Dr. Seuss is known and so well-liked. We had to produce products that are well-respected and continue the lineage of what (Geisel) was trying to do."

Oceanhouse's motto is "Creativity with Purpose" and the company aims to develop apps that "uplift, educate and inspire. " And all of the 155 or so apps available (at of cost of 99 cents to $15) reflect this philosophy. Don't expect Kripalani to put out "Grand Theft Auto"- type apps anytime soon.

How much reverence for the Seuss works does Kripalani have? The apps present the books in the original form -- no colorization, no altering of the words, no "updating" the story to make it sound cooler.

"We try to enhance the works," Kripalani said, "not go in and do superfluous animation. We don't have Cat In The Hat tap dancing -- that doesn't support literacy.

"(Geisel) wanted to teach kids how to read. A lot of value can be provided when you don't turn it into a video game."

The apps do have narration and words are highlighted as the stories are read. Another feature is words zoom up when a picture is touched. But despite it's a book in a hand-held device, the old-school approach to teaching children how to read is definitely apparent.

"We're very careful to stay with the original content," Veloskey said. "It's very important to us. Michel could have added more bells and whistles, but that's not what we want to do. The apps are very kid-friendly and are very easy to use."

Of course, Kripalani has heard all the naysayers who say that little Johnny reading on an iPad instead of a physical book is an abomination and makes a folly of education. He respectfully disagrees.

"I'm not a proponent of saying 'Books are bad, books need to go away.'" Kripalani said. "I have two young daughters and my house is full of books. Trying to build a library on apps for less than $5 (each) is one thing, building a library with $15 books is another.

"The Rolling Stones are the Rolling Stones, whether it's on a record or a CD. It's the same thing here. It's not about the format, but about the core message read in the story."

Accessibility is also an advantage, according to Kripalani.

"There are a lot of benefits to having books on phones or tablets," he said. "It's nice for a child to have (his or her) entire library with them all the time. The world is changing to digital books."

Armed with the Dr. Seuss catalog, Oceanhouse Media is right in the middle of it all.