The Sneetches and Other Stories (Dr. Seuss: Yellow Back Books)
The Star-Bellied Sneetches have bellies with Stars, but the Plain-Bellied Sneetches have none upon thars! Rivalries rocket when Sylvester McMonkey McBean steps in to prey on their prejudices, but in the end we realise that prejudice is nothing more than a rediculous waste of time. With his unique combination of hilarious stories, zany pictures and riotous rhymes, Dr. Seuss has been delighting young children and helping them learn to read for over fifty years. Creator of the wonderfully anarchic Cat in the Hat, and ranked among the UK’s top ten favourite children’s authors, Seuss is firmly established as a global best-seller, with nearly half a billion books sold worldwide. As the first step in a major rebrand programme, HarperCollins is relaunching 17 of Dr. Seuss’s best-selling books, including such perennial favourites as The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham and Fox in Socks. In response to consumer demand, the bright new cover designs incorporate much needed guidance on reading levels, with the standard paperbacks divided into three reading strands — Blue Back Books for parents to share with young children, Green Back Books for budding readers to tackle on their own, and Yellow Back Books for older, more fluent readers to enjoy. The Sneetches and Other Stories belongs to the Yellow Back Book range.”Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches / Had bellies with stars. / The Plain-Belly Sneetches / Had none upon thars.” This collection of four of Dr. Seuss’s most winning stories begins with that unforgettable tale of the unfortunate Sneetches, bamboozled by one Sylvester McMonkey McBean (“the Fix-it-up Chappie”), who teaches them that pointless prejudice can be costly. Following the Sneetches, a South-Going Zax and a North-Going Zax seem determined to butt heads on the prairie of Prax. Then there’s the tongue-twisting story of Mrs. McCave–you know, the one who had 23 sons and named them all Dave. (She realizes that she’d be far less confused had she given them different names, like Marvin O’Gravel Balloon Face or Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate.) A slightly spooky adventure involving a pair of haunted trousers–”What was I scared of?”–closes out the collection. Sneetches and Other Stories is Seuss at his best, with distinctively wacky illustrations and ingeniously weird prose. (Ages 4 to 
–Paul Hughes
List Price: $ 7.00
Price: $ 3.72
Related posts:
- One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish: Blue Back Book (Dr Seuss Blue Back Books) Reviews
- The Cat in the Hat: Green Back Book (Dr Seuss Green Back Books) Reviews
- Dr.Seuss’ “The Cat in the Hat”: How Do You Do? by Thing One and Thing Two (Dr Seuss’ “The Cat in the Hat”)
- Short Stories, Ghost Stories, Free Online Children’s Stories, Love Stories, Funny Kids Story
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And the Star-belly sneetches had 5 stars upon thars…,
Although best loved for children’s literature, it is often noted that Dr. Seuss wrote about social issues. This is one of his best, but least cited, examples. This book is a collection of 4 shorter-than-usual Dr. Seuss stories, but ones with quite significant social meaning.
The first, and most well known of the book, is the Sneetches. It is a story of a society of haves and have-nots (imagine that!), in which access to the goodies of life are determined by whether or not you have a star on your belly. Read into it what you will. Whatever you make of it, it is certainly a commentary on racial, gender, or any number of other social categories! The story’s strength is that it shows just how arbitrary and constructed these categories are. Features — such as a star, but also skin color, gendered attributes, etc etc — can be used to define people as dominant and powerful, or repressed and marginalized. What is at issue is not which characteristics are used to delineate people into specific social categories or identities, but how people marginalize others by playing up those definitions…
The Zax is a cute little story, which teaches us that compromise is quite important. Too many Daves is equally short and cute, although its meaning is less obvious. I see it as a cry for individualism. Could just be a cute story…
Finally, “What was I Scared Of?” is another really good story with a social meaning — again read into it as you will. In this story, there is a pair of pale green pants which has no one inside of it. The main character is afraid of them, but only because he never bothered to find out about them… what they were about. In fact, the empty green pants are just as afraid of him as he is of them! When they both realize they are pretty much the same, once you stood face to face with the other.
Five Stars I do give it! Five Stars Upon Thars!
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|You’ll wear out the book before you get tired reading it.,
This is definetly one of Dr. Seuss’ best. Four stories with messages so subtle and solutions so obvious that both adult and child will enjoy them again and again. Time (and repitition) has not dimmed any of their charm. The story of The Sneetches focuses on prejudice. Perhaps the most subtle of all Dr. Seuss stories, it demonstrates the silliness of stereotypes and what happens to those who subscribe to them. The story of The Zax tells the story of two stubborn and inflexible Zax. And what happens when they happen to run into each other. Too Many Daves is one mother’s story of naming all twenty-three of her children Dave. But my favorite it What Was I Scared Of? It’s a not very scary story of seeing a pair of “pale green pants with nobody, inside them”. And what to do if you should see them.
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|Excellent Source for Teaching About Tolerance of Diversity!,
“Ronald remember, when you are out walking, you walk past a sneetch of that sort without talking. Keep your snoot in the air and remember to snort. We have no touch whatever with the PLAIN bellied sort!” To have a star on your belly once made you the BETTER sneetch. Then an inventor comes to town who could put stars on the PLAIN-bellied sneetches…for the right price. Now, to seperate them once again, the star-bellies paid a great price to have their stars removed…until one day they realized that it was just plain silly to go on this way: Star or No-star had no true basis in defining who you are. Fantastic lesson in tolerance of diversity!
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