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The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss is an excellent allegory about loving your neighbor, followed by other thought-provoing tales.
The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss. Random House, 1961. 72 pages.
Reading Level: Picture Books, Ages 4-8
Recommended For: Ages 4-8
Dr. Seuss wrote some excellent collections of short stories that offer brilliant examples of his wit and sense of moral justice. One of my favorites is the first title found in The Sneetches and Other Stories.
“The Sneetches” is told in familiar Seussian style: a rhyming story about two different kinds of tall, duck-like creatures called Sneetches who share life on the same beach. Some have a star on their bellies, and some don’t. The star-bellied Sneetches are proud of their markings and treat the plain-bellied Sneetches as inferior, denying them participation in every pleasure from games to frankfurter roasts.
One day, a shyster named Sylvester McMonkey McBean shows up with a machine capable of putting a star on the plain bellies, allowing them to claim they are just as good as the rest. The original star-bellied Sneetches are horrified, making them vulnerable to McBean’s offer to remove their stars for twice the price.
Thus begins a mad circuit of Sneetches running from one machine through the next until all their money is piled at the feet of McBean and no one can remember who had a star and who didn’t. Seuss’s wordplay is brilliant, and although the anti-prejudice message is subtle, it is clear. An excellent story about loving your neighbor.
Other stories in this collection are: The Zax, Too Many Daves, and What Was I Scared Of? These are also good, though The Sneetches is my favorite.
Bottom line: An excellent allegory about loving your neighbor.
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