HORTON HEARS A WHO!

Niece loves it

For some reason, my mom never let me read Dr. Seuss books when I was little, so I missed out on many of his tales until I was older. I'd snuck in a reading of The Cat in the Hat at the school library here and there, saw the videos of The Lorax and How the Grinch Stole Christmas in the early 90s too, but that about does it for Dr. Seuss and me. But when my daughter was just 1, one of her favorite books to have read to her was a Dr. Seuss book (There's a Wocket in my Pocket!). I thought it was cute, and we got her a few other Dr. Seuss books, and she liked them all. But recently I read her Horton Hears a Who! at the book store, and she absolutely loved it- never distracted for a second, genuinely wanting to know what was going to happen to that little speck Horton was talking to. And you know, I even cared because of how desperate Horton was to protect it from everyone who thought it was nothing. Horton is a kind and gentle elephant, minding his own business when one day, a little speck starts talking to him. It turns out that the speck of dust actually contains a little world of Whos, and Horton saved them by placing them on a flower instead of letting it drift off into oblivion. Horton did the right thing because, as we all know, a person's a person, no matter how small! This is the main lesson in the book, and a very important one that people of all ages should respect. As Horton carries the flower around, various creatures try to disturb it, and think Horton's crazy for saying that people live on something as tiny as a speck of dust. One creature goes so far as to throw it in a huge field full of identical flowers. Desperate to save everyone from a terrible fate, Horton tries to get the Whos to shout as loud as they can so that everyone can hear them. They shout as loud as they can, but it's not working. Seemingly every Who is doing their best to be loud, except for one. Is that one little person just what they need to be heard? While the book is a little on the long side compared to other Dr. Seuss books we own, it's a -story- book. Not just a bunch of fun rhymes and crazy character designs. Sure it has its share of weird made-up words and funny looking characters, you get attached to poor Horton who can't convince anyone that there's life on that little speck of dust. The message of 'a person's a person, no matter how small' gets across without being overdone. It was kind of sad to see how the movie handled everything, and didn't have the heart that this book does. I highly recommend this one, and hope to read more great stories from Dr. Seuss soon.

My grandson just turned six and I gave this to him for his birthday with a couple other things. You just can’t go wrong with Dr. Seuss. The book was clean and perfect. That’s important to my son’s family. He has quite a few of the Dr. Seuss books. It’s fun to read with him. Even my son enjoys to read with him because it brings him back to when he was younger.

My kid loves it. Just another one added to the collection

Great book for our Dr Suess Collection

Great book! My grandson will love it!!

This was a gift

Horton Hears a Who has long been one of my favorite stories. I've heard its message, "A person's a person, no matter how small," used as a teaching tool for kids to understand the injustice of abortion. But reading the story recently with my own kids, it struck me how universal this message of love, kindness, compassion and perseverance truly is. This is a violent book that includes themes of destruction, imprisonment and threats of death, but Horton himself is a purely nonviolent hero. He chooses to listen when no one else does. He searches through three million flowers in order to rescue the one. Horton teaches us the power of our voice, in speaking up for ourselves as well as for others. And he shows us how to turn enemies into friends by nonviolent resistance to evil. For anyone wanting to teach their children (or themselves) to listen to the cries of the marginalized, the poor, or the silent cries of the unborn, the themes of this story are special and powerful. This is a great book to give away to anyone who will read it.