Author: Dr. Seuss
Genre: War / Food / Satire
Year Published: 1984
Year Read: 1996
Publisher: Random House
Source: Library
Content Rating: Ages 6+ (Themes of War)
Buy on: Amazon // Book Depository
Being a huge fan of Dr.
Seuss’ works over the years, I was in that mode where I wanted to read
everything that was written by him and I remembered reading “The Butter Battle Book” many years ago
when I was little. Well, I stumbled upon
“The Butter Battle Book” again when I got older and
at first, I was a little hesitant about reading this book again because of its
war themes and I usually do not like reading books about wars, but after
reading this classic book by Dr. Seuss,
I actually found myself really enjoying this book! “The
Butter Battle
Book” is definitely one of Dr.
Seuss’ most impactful and darkest stories ever told!
The book starts off with a grandfather character telling his
grandson about the great battle between the Zooks (orange uniformed people who
ate their bread with the butter side down) and the Yooks (blue uniformed people
who ate their breads with the butter side up).
The battle between the Zooks and the Yooks started when one of the Zooks
shoots off the grandfather’s Snick-Berry Switch with a slingshot and the
grandfather goes to Chief Yookeroo to get a better weapon that can beat out the
weapon of the Zooks. Unfortunately, the
Zooks keep on making better weapons than the Yooks, while the Yooks constantly
try to build a better weapon to match with the Yooks’ weapon, which causes the
book to come to a surprising conclusion!
Wow…just wow…
Who would have ever thought that I would ever come across a Dr. Seuss book that discusses about
war? Well, I have come across other Dr. Seuss books that have a heavy
message (“The Lorax” and “The
Sneetches”), but this was what I called one of Dr. Seuss’s darkest books since it discusses about a topic that is
often serious to many children…WAR. It was also surprising that this book was
actually a parody of the Cold War (the war between the United States and the Soviet
Union) as both the Zooks and the Yooks tried to best each other
with having a better weapon than the other side. Even though I do not usually read books that
have war themes because of the whole “only one side can win in this war”
mentality that is constantly being shown in these types of books, this was one
of the few war books that I had read that actually had a brilliant moral to the
story:
WAR I S POINTLESS!
Since the premise of this book is about how both sides do
not like each other because they spread their butters a different way on their
breads, you might be thinking to yourself about how ridiculous this all is and
why both sides could not reach a compromise about spreading their butter on
both sides of the breads. But, what I
loved about the way that Dr. Seuss
wrote this book was that both sides were not portrayed in a positive light
since the Zooks seem like bullies and the Yooks are prejudiced towards the
Zooks for buttering their breads differently and that might sound a bit odd,
but it was appropriate enough to bring the theme of this book home. The reason why I have such a huge dislike for
wars is because both sides that participate in the wars can be shown in a
negative light if they believe that fighting is the only solution to whatever
problem arises instead of sitting down and talking about the problem and coming
to a reasonable solution that can benefit both sides. I loved the way that Dr. Seuss made a statement about how ridiculous the war between the
Zooks and the Yooks really was because having a war about who has the best
weapons seems like a ridiculous reason for countries to fight each other and we
can easily see that through the Zooks and Yooks’ actions throughout this
book. Dr. Seuss’ illustrations may look a bit darker than usual, but still
has the usual creative flair as the Zooks are always shown in orange jumpsuits
while the Yooks are always shown in blue jumpsuits and I also loved the
different weapons that each side has, especially the Zooks’ weapon that was
called the Eight-Nozzled, Elephant-Toted Boom-Blitz which looks like a machine
that has eight nozzles and is being carried by two mean looking purple
elephants.
Probably one of the most controversial things about this
book was the abrupt ending. I will not
tell you what happens at the end since I do not want to spoil this book for anyone,
but you will be left wondering about what happens next after the events of this
book. I will admit that I was actually
mad at how the book ended, but then since this book was written during the Cold
War, it is understandable about why the book ended the way it did. It makes me wonder about if they ever thought
about making a “Butter Battle Book” movie, will the conclusion
be changed in the movie and how will they go about it? Also, the theme about the Zooks and the Yooks
going at war with each other might be a bit disturbing for younger children,
especially if they do not understand about the motives of wars or if they do
not like seeing characters fighting each other.
Overall, “The Butter Battle Book” is easily
one of the best books about anti-war ever written and anyone who is a fan of Dr. Seuss’ works or would love to read
about how terrible wars are will definitely not be disappointed in this
book! I would recommend this book to
children ages six and up since the war themes might upset younger children.
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