One of the few Dr. Seuss books I didn't discover until high school. We were discussing war and this was one way in which we took to analyzing and dissecting the basis of it. I had not read it during my childhood, but my childhood was the kind for which this book was exactly written. Hampered with the threat of imminent danger stemming from the arms race in general, but particularly the planet-ending threat of nuclear war. It was nearly a given that it would happen—the question was when.

So, no matter the age that I discovered this—I would've been 5 or 6 when it was first published—even first hearing it ten years later, the threat still loomed large in my thoughts. It had fizzled out a bit more by then: the Soviet Union break up did a lot for that simmering down. But then other countries would join in, their threat new, improved, and deadly.

The Butter Battle Book feels every bit like it was written by a person who was fed up with the constant threat of destruction, threats made by either side. You could see the problem in both sides...the amping up in response, and the hesitancy to be the first side to relent. We had painted ourselves into a corner, and global threat in general had amped up over that century...two world wars among it all, and the worry of a third, more deadly, more costly.

And yet, the rhyming pattern, the human-like creatures who are the Yooks and the Zooks, and the simplistic point of contention between them: the side on which their bread is buttered, all make for an easy way to begin that discussion of peace and hope for the future with your child...1980s or not.