The Lorax is an orange, furry, yellow-mustached fictional environmentalist from the book The Lorax, written by Dr. Seuss.
During my childhood, we read Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. By the time The Lorax was published in 1971, I was beyond reading with my parents so did not read it until I was an adult. Now it is a favorite book.
Book Review
Theodor Seuss Geise, or as most of us know him, Dr. Seuss, wrote The Lorax during the later part of his career. The Lorax is full of the bright colorful illustrations and rhymes Dr. Seuss fans know and love.
The story follows the Lorax as he tries to protect the Truffula Trees and creatures who live among them.
“I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees”
As usual, we find characters with fanciful names like Brown Bar-ba-loots, Humming-Fish, and the Once-ler.
There are fantastical landscapes and machines. One is aptly named the Super-Axe-Hacker.
Along with wonderful rhymes, we come across delightful words of Dr. Suess’ own creation such as Lerkim, Smogulos Smoke, Gluppity-Glupp, Biggering, and the best one of all, Thneed.
The Bottom Line
Although The Lorax is said to be a children’s book, there is a message woven into the story for people of all ages. It could be viewed as a book about protecting the environment, the dangers of over-commercialization and conspicuous consumption, or just good guy vs. bad guy.
I actually saw the 2012 movie The Lorax before purchasing and reading the book. The movie expanded on the book with more characters and by adding to the storyline but stayed true to the original book. It was entertaining, sad, and hopeful all at the same time.
The copy of The Lorax I purchased is printed on recycled paper which I doubt was the case with the original version. My kids are too big to read to so I hope to read it to my grandchildren someday.
Hopefully, everyone will read the book and see the movie, find their own message, and then act on it.
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After reading your review I went to my Netflex account and ordered The Lorax to be added to my queue.