Way longer than I remember and not as fun to keep up with without pictures. Though this is still a good lesson about caring for the earth.

Awards: California Young Readers Medal Nominee for Primary (1976)
Age:3-7 years old

Read on Earth day to start some grand conversations about pollution and our environment ( )

At the far end of town where the Grickle-grass grows is the street of the Lifted Lorax. What was the Lorax? Why was it lifted and taken somewhere? Only the old Once-ler knows the truth.

Back in the day when grass was still green and the song of the Swomee-Swans rang out in space, the Brown Bar-ba-loots played in the shade of the Truffula Trees and ate Truffula Fruits. But when Once-ler discovered the trees, he built a small shop, chopped down a Truffula Tree, and knitted a Thneed from the soft Truffula Tree tuft.

And the Lorax appeared to speak for the trees.

But Once-ler, determined to make his Thneed business bigger and bigger and bigger, paid no attention to the Lorax and his dire warnings until the day they chopped down the last Truffula Tree.

Before he vanishes, the Lorax leaves a small pile of rocks and the message “UNLESS” . . . .

What could that mean?

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Written in Dr. Seuss’s delightful, inimitable, nonsense-word style . . . and making absolutely perfect sense . . . the story of the Lorax speaks to the young reader [and to everyone else], calling for conservation of Earth’s invaluable, limited resources.

This picture book, with its prophetic, heart-rending message of environmental disaster . . . UNLESS . . . offers readers young and old one of the most relatable, unforgettable calls for ecological awareness and concern ever written. Consider the words of the Lorax, who speaks for the trees.

Perhaps, if readers heed the call, the Lorax will return one day, and together we can all speak for the trees.

Highly recommended. ( )

Kind of preachy. I know. That's the point. Not my favorite Seuss. ( )