The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

The Lorax is a fabulous children's story that teaches about the environment. Dr. Seuss uses his magic of rhyming to explain the importance of taking care of the world around you. The Once-ler in the story begins cutting down all the Tuffula trees to further his business. As his business grows, he polutes the air, cuts down all the trees, and runs off all other inhabitants. Eventually, the Once-ler realizes what he has done to the environment where he lives and gives a boy the last Truffula seed to plant. He explains to the boy how to take care of it. He needs to provide fresh air, water, and protection. The Once-ler tells him to protect the Truffula from those who would want to cut it down.

I read this book to my fourth grade students when we celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday. We spent some time discussing the environment. We compared how the Once-ler destroyed the environment and how we destroy it. We talked about ways to help our environment and how the Once-ler could have done things differently. The Great Kapok Tree written by Cherry Lynn is another book I have used to talk to my students about the environment. Both books are great books to use.


Geisel, T.S. (1971). The lorax. New York, NY: Random House.

Geisel, T.S. (1971). Retrieved on May 1, 2009 from web site http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=The+lorax&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=

Cherry, Lynn. (1990). The Great Kapok Tree. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.