Did you know Dr. Seuss wrote about politics? I did not. Xander quite enjoyed his first political book The Butter Battle Book. According to wikipedia, the book was even censored during the cold war. How exciting!
It was a little creepy when Xander opened up the book, brought it over to daddy, and pointed out "the bomb." Fortunately, in the end of the book, no one drops "the bomb", but the two warring parties both stand threatening to drop their bombs while their people hide in fear in the ground. Yes, this really is a kids book. Yes, it's from Dr. Seuss with rhyming and art style.
I rank this Butter Battle 2nd to "Green Eggs and Ham" of the Seuss books we've read. The "Cat in the Hat" is just plain annoying, and "Fox in socks" is just torture to read aloud.
2 comments:
No surprises here! Before he became a children's book writer, Seuss produced political cartoons during WWII (some of which are quite racist against the Japanese, ugh). See what you can learn from art history! :)
Have you tried the "Sneetches and other Stories" book? That was my absolute favorite when I was little. And Sneetches has a really great message too!
Oh wow...not so good on the racism.
We have not tried the "Sneetches" yet. I'll be sure to see if they have it at the used book store next time we go. They have quite a lot of Dr. Seuss there.
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