In Dr. Seuss's story about the Sneetches, birds with plain bellies are shunned by birds with stars on their bellies. A stranger comes to town and offers the "plain-bellies" a chance to be just like the "star-bellies" by taking a trip through his Star-On Machine. The newly-starred Sneetches are then happy, but the naturally-starred Sneetches are mad that they lost their elite status. The stranger produces a Star-Off Machine and the naturally-starred Sneetches have their stars removed, but then are followed by the newly-starred. All the Sneetches make multiple trips through both machines until they have spent all their money and none of the Sneetches can remember who was previously a star-belly and who was previously a plain-belly.
Inspired by this terrific story, I decided to make the Sneetches and their machines for my young boys. Most of the materials and tools I used are easy to find. Others aren't as obvious. Read all about it on MAKE: /