31 in 31 day 2: Polar Bear Morning

Today I read “I’m Not” by Pam Smallcomb and illustrated by Robert Weinstock. A very nice story about friendship and feeling like someone else is always better than you. But in the end, the important thing is finding your own strengths and being a good friends. Very sweet and the illustrations are fun. (2011 by Schwartz & Wade Books)

Today I read “The Lorax,” just as I planned. Like all other times I read this book, it gave me special messages. Today, though, they were no different from messages this book has given me before. I think that was because I was focusing mostly on practicing reading it to little kids, something I think I’ll be ready for after practicing a few more times.
I will share the messages with you guys anyway. One was a reminder of something I believe with all my heart. As some of you might know, the end of “The Lorax” has the now reformed Once-ler interpreting Lorax’s word “Unless” this way: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” This is bleak, but it’s very true about the environment and all other social problems that need solving. To add to this statement, I would say that in order for things to get better, we must not only care, but also be optimistic. To that end, I like to say, “We have to be optimistic. Otherwise nothing will get better.” I guess this makes me kind of an optimistic pessimist, but in all seriousness, I wish more environmentalists were optimistic and not so doom and gloom.
While it was The Lorax who initially taught me to be the environmentalist I am, I would like to assert that this story is just as much about fixing your mistakes as it is about caring for the environment; another message I got from the story today. Even though he’s the antagonist, I think many readers might identify with the Once-ler, since everyone knows what it’s like to make terrible mistakes you later want to fix. If more environmental stories connected environmental issues to values like this, which apply to many different situations, I think it would be much more obvious that the environment and all its problems include us; humans are not separate from the natural world.
Lastly, today the story helped me acknowledge just how tragic it is. I kind of ignored the tragedy of this story as a child, though I acknowledged it enough to know that caring for the environment is important. I think The Lorax was reminding me this time that it’s okay to be sad about environmental problems, especially since unfortunately, some of them won’t be solved. Not all endings are happy, but again, that does not mean we shouldn’t be optimistic.
Okay, with the sermon over, you can probably tell “The Lorax” is one of my all time favorites. I sincerely believe he made me who I am today when I first met him at age three, and I have rediscovered him many times since then throughout my life, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose. One of the many things The Lorax has taught me is that when something or someone is really important to you, it never truly goes away.

Click, Clack, Boo! A tricky treat by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Betsy Lewin. I saw it on the shelf and couldn’t resist! I have read some of Doreen’s other books and find them very funny.