The Sneetches and Other Stories

The Sneetches

Front cover with Seuss illustration
Author	Dr. Seuss
Illustrator	Seuss
Country	United States
Genre	Children's picture book, short stories in rhyme
Publisher	Redbook (magazines) Random House (book)
Publication date	July 1953 (Redbook) (The Sneetches) March 1954 (Redbook) (The Zax) August 28, 1961 (renewed 1989)
Media type	Print (hardcover)
Pages	65 pp.
OCLC	470409
LC Class	PZ8.3.S477 Sn 1961
Preceded by	Green Eggs and Ham
Followed by	Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book

The Sneetches and Other Stories is a collection of stories by American author Dr. Seuss, published in 1953. It is composed of four separate stories with themes of tolerance, diversity, and compromise: "The Sneetches", "The Zax", "Too Many Daves", and "What Was I Scared Of?". Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association named the book one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children." In 2012 it was ranked number 63 among the "Top 100 Picture Books" in a survey published by School Library Journal – the fifth of five Dr. Seuss books on the list.

The first two stories in the book ("The Sneetches" and "The Zax") were later adapted, along with Green Eggs and Ham, into 1973's animated TV musical special Dr. Seuss on the Loose: The Sneetches, The Zax, Green Eggs and Ham with Hans Conried voicing both Zaxes and Paul Winchell and Bob Holt voicing the Sneetches and Sylvester McMonkey McBean respectively.

The first story in the collection tells of a group of yellow creatures called Sneetches, some of whom have a green star on their bellies. At the beginning of the story, Sneetches with stars discriminate against and shun those without. An entrepreneur named Sylvester McMonkey McBean (calling himself the Fix-It-Up Chappie) appears and offers the Sneetches without stars the chance to get them with his Star-On machine, for three dollars. The treatment is instantly popular, but this upsets the original star-bellied Sneetches, as they are in danger of losing their special status. McBean then tells them about his Star-Off machine, costing ten dollars, and the Sneetches who originally had stars happily pay the money to have them removed in order to remain special. However, McBean does not share the prejudices of the Sneetches, and allows the recently starred Sneetches through this machine as well. Ultimately this escalates, with the Sneetches running from one machine to the next….

This continues until the Sneetches are penniless and McBean departs as a rich man, amused by their folly. Despite his assertion that "you can't teach a Sneetch", the Sneetches learn from this experience that neither plain-belly nor star-belly Sneetches are superior, and they are able to get along and become friends.

"The Sneetches" was intended by Seuss as a satire of discrimination between races and cultures, and was specifically inspired by his opposition to antisemitism.