Horton Hears a Who! By Dr. Suess Reviewed by Meghan Caldarera

Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss is a book that children will love because it has clever rhymes and has an exciting plot! However, the book may be easy to read, but the underlined message is very important and meaningful for children and even adults. The book starts off with this kind-hearted elephant named Horton splashing around in a pool. Horton then hears a tiny voice scream for help. The voice is coming from a little speck of something that is about to blow into the water. At first Horton just looks at the tiny speck and does not see anything on it that could be a person. He then figures it must be dust, but then realizes that dust can not talk and that it must be a person....a very tiny person. He saves the speck from falling into the water and places it gently on a clover. Some other creatures living in the area, like the sour kangaroo think Horton is crazy and that nothing is on the clover at all. Even through all that Horton protects the clover with all his heart. The little speck on the clover then talks to Horton again and tells him that there is a whole village of tiny little people named "who's" living on the clover. It is the major of Whoville who is thanking Horton for protecting the who's and Whoville. The other creatures around Horton think he is crazy for talking to a clover and do not believe there is any kind of person living on it. So, they take the clover and give it to a bird who drops it into s patch of clovers. Horton searches and searches and finally finds the clover with the who's on it. He kept saying, I must protected this clover because "a person is a person no matter how small." The other creatures around make a plan to boil the little dust speck on the clover then rope and cage Horton. Horton tells the who's to scream and yell and let the others know that they are really people,but that they are just small. The who's yell and scream saying that they are there, but the kangaroo, monkeys and others can not hear them. Since they could not hear anything coming from the little dust speck on the clover they tie up Horton and plan on boiling the who's and their village. Then, Horton whispers to the major of Whoville and tells him to make sure everyone is yelling. The major quickly runs around the village to make sure everyone is making noise and he finds there is one who that is not yelling. He happens to be Jo-Jo the tiniest who in the village. The major grabs Jo-Jo and tells him the town needs him to help in order to be heard. The tiniest little who of all yells with the rest of the village. Finally, the kangaroo and others hear the who's now. It was little Jo-Jo, the tiniest of all that helped the kangaroo and others to see that "a person is a person no matter how small and that a a whole world can be saved by the smallest of all!"
This is not only a wonderful book just to read and gain the beautiful message out of it, but it can also be used in many ways inside the classroom. For example, I could use it in my classroom someday by reading the story to the whole class then asking the students to name a time when someone made a difference in their life or when they made a difference is someone's life. The difference could be sharing, helping, or just being friendly. Then, I would have them write a poem or draw a picture of that incident. This book could also be a springboard into learning character traits, such as, sharing, helping others, being a good friend, etc. I could also use this book to introduce a major inspirational person that changed many people's lives, such as, Martin Luther King. As a class we could talk about how Horton helped save the who's, how all the who's worked together to yell, how Jo-Jo the smallest who could help, and that people are people even if they are different than you. Then go into the lesson about how Martin Luther King helped free blacks and made a difference.