Agency of NATO and United Nations to Distribute Dr. Seuss Stories to Foster Racial Tolerance in War-Torn Bosnia

Business Wire, August 10, 1998

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 10, 1998--Random House Children's Publishing and Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced today that The Sneetches and Other Stories, a book by the celebrated children's author Dr. Seuss, will be translated by NATO into Serbo-Croatian and distributed in the fall to 500,000 children in Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of an information campaign to help encourage racial tolerance.

The request to use The Sneetches came from the Combined Joint Information Campaign Task Force, an agency of NATO and the United Nations Peace Stabilization Force, headquartered in Sarajevo. The idea came from a NATO soldier who read the book as a child and remembered the message of tolerance in The Sneetches.

The mission of the Combined Joint Information Campaign Task Force is to positively influence the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina by fostering reconciliation, tolerance, and peaceful co-existence - crucial values in a country that has been torn apart by ethnically motivated conflict, causing more than 200,000 deaths. Through the Dr. Seuss stories, the group hopes to reinforce these messages for children in an entertaining way.

Harold Clarke, President of Random House Children's Publishing, said: "I think it is a fitting tribute to Dr. Seuss's work that these stories will be used to heal a war-torn country. Once again, we are reminded how timeless the messages and values are in his many works, which have been read and treasured by generations the world over."

Audrey Geisel, CEO of Dr. Seuss Enterprises and wife of the late Dr. Seuss, said: "Since my husband died, much has happened that I would have dearly loved to share with him, but none more than to have had him see his Sneetches, whose only territory has been beaches, now have the opportunity to teach their lesson of tolerance in a far more important theater of operations: the minds of the children of Bosnia. He would regard this as among his finest achievements."

The Sneetches is a story about a group of fanciful creatures, the Sneetches. There are two groups of Sneetches, and the only difference between them is the star upon their bellies - some have them and some don't. Yet the groups do not get along.

Eventually, the Sneetches without the stars paint them on their bellies, and the Sneetches with stars have them removed. The two groups discover that, stars or no stars, they are all the same kind of Sneetch deep down, and one is not better than the other.

The Sneetches was originally published in 1953. Dr. Seuss, one of the most beloved children's book authors of all time, wrote and illustrated 48 books that have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide.

Random House Children's Publishing, a division of Random House, Inc., includes Random House, Crown and Knopf Books for Young Readers, as well as Random House Children's Media. Random House, Inc. is a division of the Bertelsmann Book Group of Bertelsmann AG, one of the world's largest media companies.

    CONTACT: Random House, New York
              Kelly Grunther
              212/940-7723
              kgrunther@randomhouse.com