That’s right. It’s Feature Friday, people, and tonight I’m featuring one of my favorite childrens’ stories.

Yes, Dr. Seuss’ beloved The Lorax. Now, if it’s one of my favorite stories, you might wonder what prompted me to get this copy from the library. Well, the answer for why I don’t own it is that as much as I love to read, I actually don’t like to own a lot of books (gasp!). What prompted me to pick it up, though, was something that happened a few nights ago.

As I sat watching TV with man-go-round, a trailer came on the screen for the new movie “remix” of The Lorax. Now, if you’re like me you remember the beloved cartoon film, and read this book like it was going out of style. Man-go-round saw my eyes glued suddenly to the television (unlike my usual staring at my computer and forgetting to watch the television), and said, “we’ll have to go to that!” and then added, “I don’t know the story.”

All of a sudden, I was determined to bring The Lorax to a new set of eyes. I was a bit stunned to find that he had never read the story, or even seen the cartoon. Man-go-round comes from quite “green” people, and so it seemed like something he would have eaten up as a kid. Obviously, I darted out to the library and picked it up. Whew!

Now, why do I love The Lorax? Let me make a list! It has been… four days… since my last list, after all!

I Speak for the Lorax: Why this book is special

1. Dr. Seuss is pretty unique in general. Of all of his garble, though, this is one of his rare books that has a pretty important message.
2. The Lorax is a pretty neat creature. Part groundhog, part curmudgeon. I think I would like him as a pet!
3. The “don’t exploit the trees and pollute the earth” message sunk through my stupid, self-centered undeveloped child brain, and the colors and rhymes of the book caught my attention and taught me about sustainability much earlier than would have happened without this confection of a book.
4. I have spent my adult life curious of what on earth a “Once-ler” is. I may never know.
5. When I was younger I dreamed of living in a field of Truffula Trees

 Now, don’t you want to save the Truffula’s and the environment they live in and support, too? Don’t you want to bring back the Bar-ba-loots? They have crummies in their tummies, for crying out loud!

Okay, so I’m a big bad consumer a lot of the time. I try to be as green as I can, but I fail miserably much of the time. Despite our imperfections, what do you do to try to save our earth? Do you love The Lorax as much as me? Are you skeptical of the new movie too?

Meri