The Lorax

Book Title: The Lorax

Author(s): Dr. Seuss

Illustrator/Photographer/Artist: Dr. Seuss

Publisher: Random House, Inc.

Copyright Date: 1971

Genre: Fantasy, Poetry

Brief Annotation: The Once-ler tells a little boy the story of his interactions with the Lorax. He tells of the story of the beautiful land where the Truffula trees grew wild and abundant, where the animals lived happily there in happiness and freedom. The Once-ler came in and began to make Thneeds out of the Truffula trees. He made a factory and had his family come and make Thneeds upon Thneeds upon Thneeds. He began cutting down Truffula trees at an extremely fast rate and built a factory that emitted smoke and fumes. The Lorax tried to warn the Once-ler that it was ruining his home and the home of the animals. He spoke on behalf of the trees, the fish, the bears, on everyone that the Once-ler was hurting. He refused to listen and eventually the Once-ler killed everything in the Lorax’s world in order to make his Thneeds and the Lorax was forced to leave and the Once-ler was left there all alone in the grim place where the Grickle-grass grows.

Your Rating (1-5) and why: 5 – The message behind this book is fantastic. It tells the story of how an industrialized society is endangering the environment. It focuses on a very important, mature topic and brings it to a level for children to understand and view it. The text is fabulous, as most of Dr. Seuss’ stories are and the illustrations are whimsical.

Readers who will like this book: Anyone who is interested in nature and preserving it will enjoy this book. People who love Dr. Seuss will enjoy this one just as the others.

Teaching Strategy from Tompkins or Yopp & Yopp: A good teaching strategy from Tompkins is Literacy Centers (pg. 67-69). Teachers can create their own literacy centers to test different things. A literacy center I created with this book is Rime Bingo. This center assessed students ability to pick out rimes and onsets, which addresses phonics. This is a fun and engaging way to help students understand phonics that is connected to a piece of literature.

Question to ask about this book before a read aloud: What do you think was here before we moved here? What kind of animals and nature existed before we came?

Optional, but noted as extra effort:

1. Interest Level (age): K – 2

2. Grade Level Equivalent (grade): 3.5

3. List awards: None

4. Does this book have a book trailer? No