The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss (published in 1961) has a great message about acceptance and kindness.

SUMMARY

It is a story about prejudice and discrimination which is treating others differently because of how they look. In this story, there are 2 kinds of sneetches: the star belly and the plain belly. The star belly think that they are superior than the plain belly. The two groups of sneetches can't seem to get along. Here comes a man with a machine who sells them stars and star removals. This causes a mess. No one can remember who had the stars and who didn't. Maybe after all of this chaos, we can all agree that we are all the same after all.

Let's listen to the story:

https://youtu.be/6D8zd9eiqTo

Comprehension Questions

Why did the Star-Belly
Sneetches treat the
other Sneetches badly?

What is the biggest
problem in the story?

How does the problem
in the story relate to
the way people treat
each other in real life?

Should people be
treated differently
because of the way the
look?

Vocabulary:

Contraption: machine, device

Moping: sulking, pouting

Peculiar: odd, strange

Central Message: The biggest problem in the story is that some Sneetches are willing to treat other Sneetches badly
because of the way they look. McBean unknowingly helps the Sneetches solve their problem because
they all got so confused about who had stars and who did not that they realized it didn’t matter. The
Sneetches decided that no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beach. We are all the same and we should treat everyone equally.