Most Controversial Dr. Seuss Books for Kids

Cancel Dr. Seuss? When Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, wrote “Oh, the Places You’ll Go,” he wasn’t anticipating going to literary jail. But that’s exactly where he ended up. Since 2019, several school districts and organizations have spoken out about racist undercurrents beneath the colorful rhymes and illustrations in his popular children’s books. 

This isn’t the first time concerns were raised. Back in 2017, Book World editor Ron Charles of The Washington Post said: “There’s been some good scholarship about Dr. Seuss and his earlier work. Some are really disturbing. Clearly, his work was based on older racist tropes, that’s a perfectly legitimate discussion to have.”

A legitimate discussion indeed. While there’s no denying some aspects of Seuss’s work are racially insensitive and tone-deaf by today’s standards, does that mean his books should be removed from classrooms and bookshelves altogether?

Dr. Seuss wrote more than 60 books, including 45 children’s books (or 46, or 47, depending on what you count as a children’s book). Parents have been reading Dr. Seuss books to their kids since his first children’s book, “And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” was published in 1937.

But some parents and other adults think it’s time to stop reading Dr. Seuss books. Here are a few reasons why.

But there’s a reason Dr. Seuss books have sold 650 million copies in 95 countries and been translated into 17 languages.

For parents and educators who plan on continuing to share Dr. Seuss books with their children and students, it’s important to educate yourself first.

By understanding why some of Seuss’s work is problematic, you can pass on these lessons to the next generation without erasing the value of Dr. Seuss’s whimsical rhymes and artistic expression. 

The following books are among the most highly debated. If you don’t know why, don’t worry. You will in a minute.

Year of publication: 1953

What it’s about: In the story, some winged, yellow creatures called Sneetches realize that some Sneetches have stars on their bellies and some do not. The ones without the star are ostracized and left out.

An opportunistic character called Sylvester McMonkey McBean arrives to market a “Star-On machine” to the star-less Sneetches. It works well, but the Sneetches with natural stars are upset that they’re no longer “special.” McBean offers to remove their stars with his new “Star-Off machine,” so that they would once again be unique. 

The Sneetches frantically run back and forth from one machine to the other, trying to hang on to their privilege. In the end, McBean is rich, and none of the Sneetches know which are special and which are not. They’re just Sneetches.

Why it’s controversial: This isn’t the most controversial Dr. Seuss book by a long shot, but it deserves some analysis. The Sneetches were supposed to impart an anti-racist message. Seuss aimed to build a satire about discrimination, stemming from his frustration with anti-Semitism.

Its publication was a well-intended counter to Seuss’s earlier political cartoons, which were blatantly racist in their caricatured portrayal of people of Japanese, Chinese, African, and Arab descent. When “The Sneetches” was first published in 1953, it was hailed by the publisher as “a perfect guide for kids growing up in a multicultural world.” In 2021, it’s definitely not. 

In the story, Sneetches can switch their star-status at will. Within the course of a single story, they realize that prejudice is bad, and proceed to live out their happy Sneetch lives in blissful peace and harmony. The issue lies in the fact that human beings cannot change their cultural identities at will. White privilege can’t be bought from a 3 a.m. infomercial. If racism could be cured by people simply realizing that it’s bad, it would have died long ago. 

The oversimplification of prejudice is the first problem with the story of the Sneetches. The second is that it implies that all Sneetches are good because they’re fundamentally the same. In the story, Seuss writes:

“…until neither the Plain nor the Star-Bellies knew

whether this one was that one … or that one was this one.”

The problem is that people are different. Early anti-prejudice books like “The Sneetches” were often designed to water down racial and cultural differences rather than celebrating them. In this particular case, Seuss’s work was well-intentioned, just poorly executed. 

Conversation starters: Here are some good questions to get the conversation going.

From there, teachers and parents can help students understand that race is much more complicated than the book makes it out to be.