The Butter Battle Book: (New York Times Notable Book of the Year) (Classic Seuss)

Okay you are probably wondering why I am talking about this book. In my Language Arts class my students had to read "The Sneetches" by Dr. Seuss. Today I read "The Butter Battle Book" also by Dr. Seuss. The idea is they are to compare and contrast the two books. Needless to say my very

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knowledgeable sixth graders proceeded to tell me how the Butter Battle Book is actually a political story about the Cold War. I almost dropped my teeth. Why? A few years ago when I did a lesson on the Berlin Wall my 8th grade students had no idea what the Cold War was. These sixth graders not only knew about it they knew which President played a vital role. One of my students is doing their History Fair project on The Cold War and one of them is doing their project on the Berlin Wall. To say I was surprised is an understatement. We will have to do our compare/contrast tomorrow because today was all about life under socialism and communism. I am so glad that I have taught History in the past because to tie it in with the books we are reading and watching my students make the connections is absolutely wonderful. However if you don't know what the book is about I will say no more and recommend you go to your library and check out a copy of Dr Seuss's "Butter Battle Book".

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This story is about two towns and the wall that separates them. Yooks like to eats their bead butter side up and the Zooks eat butter side down, this becomes the start of a battle. When one side thinks he has the next best weapon the other side has the same or better. Who will win this battle?
This

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is a great story that teaches about how wars can start and how they have evolved. Great idea to use this book to help students understand the Cold War and the Berlin Wall. Can give the students a better understanding of why the Berlin Wall was there and help start a discussion on war.

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The teetering terror of the Cold War detente is summed up neatly, and there is hardly a bad line, but this is a bit too heavy-handed for me, lacking Seuss's usual deftness.

Genre: Fantasy
Media: cartooning, ink and paint
Characterization: Grandpa is a round and static character. He is round because we know that his ideals are to serve his people the Yooks, yet he never grows nor changes. His ideals and his personality always stay the same throughout the book. His

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mission is always to destroy the Zooks.
Review: This is book is a good example of fantasy. Everything in it is a completely made up world and nothing is realistic. However, because of the plot and characters you get immersed into the world of Yooks and Zooks and you begin to take sides in their battle. You become drawn into this imaginary world and become one of the characters. However, the book does leave you hanging and that jolts you rather quickly out of the fantasy world and makes you contemplate why these two things were fighting and whether it was worth it.

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Dr. Seuss is always a great choice. This book could be used with the younger kids to work on developing phonemic awareness or memorization. They are always entertaining.

This represents a Modern Fantasy because the setting and characters are make-believe and would not be possible in real life. The story does hold a bit of truth because it can be understood in our world through the interactions and concepts that can be learned.

So much more than a picture book. On the surface, this book presents an interesting story for young readers in the typical Dr. Seuss fashion, with crazy names and lots of bright illustrations. On a deeper level however, is a book that brillantly sums up the dangers of an arms race between two

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nations. This book is not the first time that Dr. Seuss has tackled an issue not normally found in a picture book. The Lorax serves the same cautionary purpose for the message of protecting the environment. This book works great in high school U.S. history classrooms during a unit on the Cold War. What better way to start a lesson on the arms race than with the teacher reading this book to the class!

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I love this book. I think it is a great way to introduce to your own children or your students that everyone was different and we all need to accept that. In this story, it compares two different groups and how one likes to eat their bread with the butter side down and the other likes to eat it

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with the butter side up. Both opposing sides hated each other and thought the other was wrong. Just like The Lorax, this book takes a very important issue that goes on everyday in our world and puts it in a children's story that will catch their interest with silly pictures and texts, while still teaching the underlying lesson. There is also no definite ending, so after the book is read you can have your students predict what happens next and write their own ending to the story. The main message in this story is to be open minded and accepting of others who are different than you.

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Enjoyed reading this classic aloud to my students to celebrate Seuss's birthday. Sparked interesting conversation about tolerating differences-mission accomplished!

I love all books written by Dr. Seuss but this one is particularly interesting to me for many reasons. He uses fun-tastic characters and a fictional setting but is secretly teaching readers about the arms race that was going on at the time the book was published. The Yooks and Zooks are constantly

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trying to one-up one another and in the process, may cause serious harm.

This book includes messages of morality and would be beneficial for young students to comprehend.

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A disagreement about which is the best way to eat toast -- butter side down or butter side up -- turns into war between two towns. This would be a great catalyst for discussion about the cold war with older children and tolerance with younger children.

Mom's Review: Absolutely brilliant book about diversity, acceptance and the stupidity of war that is just as relevant today as when it was written in 1984 (although obviously written years earlier). Done with Seuss' usual delightful artwork and wonderful rhyme, it is one of those stories that will

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stand the tests of time. This is one of my favorite books of all time ever since it was introduced to me by my professor for the Children's Literature course I took in college. I am still amazed that this book has been challenged or banned from various libraries since it was originally published. I think they miss the whole point of what Seuss was trying to get across -- but than again anyone who bans book aren't exactly working with a full deck. (Jake: Doesn't that mean you are prejudiced against book burners Mom: Smart ass!)
Mom's Rating: 10/10

Jake's Review:
Jake: So mom these people are fighting over the way they butter their bread, isn't that kind of stupid.
Mom: You remember how we talked about Russia and the Cold War
Jake: Ohhh, I get it he's talking about the Russians and the Americans and he is teaching me a moral lesson that fighting over being different is kinda dumb -- mom Seuss is kinda like you eh?
Mom: Dude that is the nicest thing you have ever said - come give me a hug
Jake: Dad, mom's getting all girly again - make her stop
Mom: Now I am going to teach you another term - misogynistic pig

Jake: The book is pretty good with fun pictures and I like the way he rhymes everything. I can see why mom likes it, Dr Seuss is one cool dude. It is kinda depressing and I didn't like that at the end you don't know find out if they did blow each other up.
Jake's Rating: 9/10

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It is the story of yooks, who eat bread with butter up side, and Zooks, who eat bread with butter down side. A grandfather, who dedicates his life to the yook philosophy that bread should be spread with butter on its top side, and he frightens the Zooks with snick-berry switch as he cannot stand

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the way Zooks eat butter down side. There is a big wall between Yooks’ and Zook’s land and grandfather takes the boy to this wall. One day, one of the Zooks slingshotted the snick- berry switch and war began between Yooks and Zooks. The grandfather develops his weapon and changes the snick-berry switch to a fancier sling shoot named triple-sling jigger. Triple-sling jigger becomes a kick-a-poo kid, then becomes an utterly sputter and by the time weapons of both sides becomes bigger and advanced until it becomes to Boomeroo, a bomb. Every one cheers “Fight for the butter side up! Do or die!” The grandfather was ordered to drop the bomb on the Zooks while all Yooks stay underground to protect themselves, but Zooks also had one Boomeroo and the boy follows the grandfather to see what is going to happen.
I think this is a good story and every one would have different perception of this book. If reader thinks deeply, not just the surface, then there are messages behind the story that shows the way governments, politics, and beliefs work.

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This is a good example of fantasy, because made up creatures are talking and interacting. But while the creatures on each side are scheming and fighting, there is no closure or reconciliation at the end of the book.
The setting is a make-believe world where crazy invention is a regular activity.

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Pretend creatures are acting as if what is going on is normal for their world. There are two groups of creatures, the Yooks, who eat their bread with the butter side up, and the Zooks, who eat their bread with the butter side down. They are divided by a wall and are fighting against each other using elaborate and made up sling shots, guns, etc.

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I love Dr. Seuss so I had to grab one of his stories for my collection. I love the nonsense words throughout the story like Yooks and Zooks. It makes the book super silly but it reflects the problems of the story too. This particular story is about to parts of the town where on one side they butter

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their bread butter up while the other side of the town butters their bread butter side down. Now this does not sound like a huge deal but it is to the Yooks and Zooks, so much so that they enter a war with each other. They each design new 'weapons' like the Triple-Sling Jigger or the Jigger-Rock Snatchem and even the Kick-a-Poo Kid. Eventually the Yooks developed a 'Bitsy Big-Boy Boomeroo' to blow the Zooks clear to Sala-ma-goo.

I love how silly this book is but I do believe that it is a book for older children. Even though it is humorous, it is still about war and hating someone, in this case the whole other side of town, for one small detail. They do not like how they butter their toast differently from the Yooks and like most of the society we live in today, that is cause for chaos and war. I would have never realized this reading it as a child but I caught on to it reading it this time through. The main idea is to prove to the reader that it is SILLY to cause an all out war just because a group of people are doing something different from another group. But yet we can look in our society today and see hate because of the differences between people. It is a very powerful story and I applaud Dr. Seuss for approaching this topic in such a real and simple way.

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Another brilliant book by Dr. Seuss. My favorite thing about it is that it is one of those books that can be read on so many levels. To younger children, it is a fun, rhyming book with the Yooks and the Zooks arguing over how to eat bread and butter. However, there are many lessons to be looked at

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and learned from this story that the older the children get, hopefully the more they will recognize and appreciate. The book deals with prejudice and intolerance and shows how quickly violence can get out of hand. I feel this is a picture book that even high school kids should take the opportunity to read.

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This book is a good book to talk to students about war and different types of battles. The ending is a bit of a hanger and I wasn't expecting it to end in such a way. Over all a good read.

I divide my seventh graders into groups of 3 or 4 and give them each a copy of this book. They take turns "being the teacher" and reading the story to the others in their group. They love doing this. I give each group markers and a sheet of construction paper, and they answer the following

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questions:
1. What is the conflict of the story?
2. How is the conflict resolved? (Is it?)
3. What do you think the moral or the message of the story is?
Each group then shares their posters with the rest of the class. I hang them up, as they contain great messages to hold onto throughout the year...

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Engaged in a long-running battle, the Yooks and the Zooks develop more and more sophisticated weaponry as they attempt to outdo each other.

The Butter Battle Book is another of Dr. Seuss's titles which reflect his activist side. Through satirical humor, he explores the ridiculousness and futility of war. The Yooks and the Zooks have an age-old disagreement over which way to eat their bread, butter side up or down, and as a result, they

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eventually start a war over it. They begin with sentries guarding the wall separating their borders which of course, could be taken as a metaphor for anything that separates us from our fellow man. One side fires upon the other with a slingshot and from there, the conflict continues to escalate with each side coming up with increasingly preposterous weapons until both possess a small bomb which could blow the other side to smithereens and in essence wipe out the world.

It's doubtful that younger children will understand the deeper meaning behind the story, but they're sure to be delighted with the classic Seuss rhyming text and whimsical illustrations of Seuss-ified characters and their silly machines. With parental or educator guidance older children can glean an important message about getting along with others who have different views in order to prevent conflict from happening and not feeling like you have to one up each other until you either reach an impossible situation or the worst occurs. I think this simple lesson could be applied to our daily lives, as well as the world at large for preventing warfare. Overall, The Butter Battle Book was another fabulous Dr. Seuss story that has earned a spot on my keeper shelf.

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This book was a New York Times bestseller in 1984 and on the New York Times Notable Book of the Year and PEN Center USA Literature Award for Children's Literature in 1985. Dr. Seuss tells a rhyming story about the competition between the Yooks and the Zooks to create the most powerful weapon all

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because they disagree on how to butter bread. This is a cleaver allegory for the Cold War era and the tension and arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union.

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The Yooks and Zooks share a love of buttered bread, but animosity brews between the two groups because they prefer to enjoy the tasty treat differently. The timeless and topical rhyming text is an ideal way to teach young children about the issues of tolerance and respect.

The butter battle book by Dr. Seuss
Two different families and each one butters their bread differently.
Rhyming silly children's book that uses your imagination.
received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).

Published 1984? Too bad Seuss waited so long. But I suppose he got fed up when Ronald Reagan got gung-ho with his 'Star Wars' (Strategic Defense Initiative). This book is anything but subtle, and it is more universally applicable than just to the Cold War. Bonus * for the non-ending.