This Dr. Seuss classic children’s book was first published in 1961.
There are two varieties of Sneetches, those who have stars on their bellies, and those who don’t. The stars aren’t terribly big, and you wouldn’t think it would cause that much of a problem, but—it did.
You see, the star-bellied Sneetches thought themselves to be much better than the plain-bellied Sneetches. Whenever they would pass each other, the ones with stars wouldn’t even talk to those without, and children with stars wouldn’t play with children without. It really was very sad, and the plain-bellied Sneetches felt very sad.
But one day, a salesman came wandering along. His name was Sylvester McMonkey McBean, and he promised a wonderful cure. The plain-bellied Sneetches would simply walk into one side of his machine and when they came out the other side, they too would have a star on their bellies! The old trickster – he knew he was going to make a mint off this thing.
Of course all the plain-bellied Sneetches lined up to get in, and popped out the other side with stars on their tummies. They couldn’t have been more happy.
But the original starred Sneetches though this was terrible! Now how would anyone tell them apart? Mr. McBean whispered in their ears too, telling them that stars really weren’t fashionable. He got them all to go through his machine in reverse, and it took off their stars. Now they were different again.
Well, back and forth the Sneetches went, trying to decide what was popular, paying money to look a certain way, and not feeling one bit better about themselves in the process. The line to get into the machine was horrendously long, but even more horrendous was the huge pile of money Mr. McBean walked away with. It was scandalous, really.
Finally, the Sneetches realized how very silly they had been, and they started to get to know each other, regardless of whether or not they had a star. By now, they couldn’t even remember who was a star and who was a plain-belly – and they decided it wasn’t important anyway.
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