The Lorax - Dr. Seuss

The Lorax is a powerful tale that sends a message to conserve the earth's precious and finite natural resources. The story stresses the fact that we are at risk of losing real life Brown Bar-ba-loots, Swomee-Swans, Humming Fish, Truffula Trees, and the forests they all inhabit. The Lorax is didactic which means to intend to instruct, to be morally instructive, to be excessively inclined to moralize or teach, to be skillful in teaching, convey instructions and to teach morality and be preachy. In the story, the Lorax is didactic because he uses a sharp and bossy voice when he tells the Once-ler that he is speaking for the trees. He is preachy when he keeps telling the Once-ler to stop cutting the trees. He is trying to convey a message about the environment that when people get greedy and no one cares, nothing will get better.
Some other books that are didactic are The Hungry Caterpillar, I am a Lion, It's not Fair!, and Noise! Noise! Noise! These book received low reviews because they teach a moral lesson. There is a strong bias against didactic books. Many writers hear from publishers that books should not moralize. Some educators believe children should not be influenced by outside forces, instead children should be determinators of their own value system. Writers Digest states that Simon and Schuster (Books for Young Readers) gives the advice to those wanting to submit books, "Please avoid problem novels, rhyming verse and didactic stories with morals." Librarians emphasize that children want to learn. They want interesting books that teach them how to be successful.