THE LORAX  (English, Paperback, Seuss, Dr.)

The Lorax is a classic tale that educates young readers about the importance of the beauty of the environment as well as their responsibility to protect it. The book also warns them about the dangers of not caring and respecting the environment.

Summary Of The Book

Even before “environmentally friendly” and “going green” became buzzwords, The Lorax, a children’s book first published in 1971, spoke about the dangers of corporate greed and the harmful effects on the environment.

The Lorax is the story of Once-ler representing the industry and Lorax representing the environment. It begins with a young boy visiting the Once-ler who asks him the reason for the area being in such a bad state. The Once-ler then goes onto explain how he had come to the area when it was a beautiful valley with many animals playing among the Truffula trees and how he had gone onto cut the trees, one by one to gather the material needed to knit “Thneeds”, something that could be used as a carpet, a shirt, a pillow or any one of the many countless things.

The cutting down of the trees has the Lorax appear, who warns the Once-ler of dire consequences, who ignores him and instead invites his relatives to come over and work in his factory. All of this results in the once pristine valley getting choked with pollution and the driving away of the animals elsewhere. Soon, all of the Truffula trees are cut down and he is left with no more raw materials, which eventually results in the shutdown of the factory. Saddened by all of this, the Lorax too flies away into the clouds. The Once-ler is left all alone pondering over a message that the Lorax had etched for him on a stone slab saying just one word, “Unless”.

An online poll conducted by the National Education Association in 2007 named The Lorax as one of the “Teachers’ Top 100 Books for Children”. In 2012, a poll conducted by School Library Journal listed it as one of the "Top 100 Picture Books" of all time. It was also adapted as an animation film for television in 1972. In March 2012, Illumination Entertainment and Universal Studios released a 3-D CGI feature film based on the book.

About Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss was an American cartoonist, writer and poet.

Some of his popular books are The Cat In The Hat, Horton Hears A Who!, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, and The 500 Hats Of Bartholomew Cubbins.

Seuss’s writing is characterized by the use of rhyme, imaginative characters and the use of the anapestic meter.

Dr. Seuss was born as Theodor Seuss Geisel on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts. He graduated from the Springfield Central High School in 1921. He then went onto graduate from Dartmouth College in the year 1925. With the intention of earning his PhD in English literature, he joined Lincoln college, Oxford, where he met his future wife, Helen Palmer, who convinced him to give up his studies and pursue a career in drawing. Dr. Seuss has the honour of winning two Emmy awards, two Academy awards, the Pulitzer Prize, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal and a Peabody award. He died on September 24, 1991.