The Sneetches and Other Stories

by Dr. Seuss

Stars on bellies. A machine. Nobody wins but the man with the machine.

For you if

your child is starting to notice that some kids treat other kids as less-than and needs a book that names exactly how that works

⚡ Choose Your Route ⚡

Not sold directly on this site. Support indie bookstores with a new copy, or go sustainable with a used one.

Buy New on Bookshop.org

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Find Used on Better World Books

Secondhand & sustainable

$19 MSRP
Reference price shown. Other editions may be available.

The Star-Belly Sneetches have stars. The Plain-Belly Sneetches do not. The Star-Bellies make very sure the Plain-Bellies know it. Then Sylvester McMonkey McBean arrives with a machine that puts stars on — and takes them off — for a price, until nobody can remember who had stars first and the whole system collapses. Seuss wrote this in 1961 as a direct response to antisemitism and racial prejudice, but the allegory is so clean it applies to every arbitrary hierarchy children will encounter. The most efficient picture book ever written about how discrimination works — and how the people who profit from division are the only ones who win.

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