Horton Hears a Who

Geisel, T. (1954). Horton hears a who!. New York: Random House

       A teacher on my 3rd grade team is absolutely obsessed with Dr. Seuss and plans out lots of great activities for Read Across America week - so much so that I often don't have time to teach all of the great lessons she plans. One book I plan on using in the future is Horton Hears A Who! I had already seen the movie, but decided to read it as my poetry selection and absolutely fell in love with it and all the things I could do with my kiddos!
       Horton is a lovable elephant minding his own business when he hears a small voice coming from a speck of dust. He carries the speck of dust and is ridiculed by his peers for talking to and believing that there is life on the small flower. Despite being made fun of by his neighbors Horton continues protecting what he finds out is a tiny community, Who-ville and repeating the mantra, "A person's a person, no matter how small". Finally tired of seeing Horton carry on with the dust, members of his own community steal the bud and try to get rid of it, in a field of clover! Horton's determination to save Who-ville helps him make it through all the many flowers until he discovers his missing clover. In an effort to get the other animals of the jungle to believe that Who-ville exists on the clover, Horton and the mayor of Who-ville join together. Will the kangaroo and other animals believe in Who-ville or is it a lost cause?
        Horton Hears A Who is in the poetry genre because Dr. Seuss uses ryhming words and some onomatopeia throughout the book. For example, at the end it says "A person's a person not matter how small, and their whole word was saved by the smallest of all!" It also uses words like, SPLASH to represent the sound of Horton splashing in the pool at the beginning. This work, like most of Dr. Seuss' works, is a single-illustrated poem because it is a poem that is telling one story rather than being a collection of several poems. Since it is a poem that is telling a single story there is are well-developed characters, such as Horton, who we learn is very kind and determined because of his actions toward the Who's and his determination to keep them alive. There is also a well developed plot with a progressional format as the events are told in the order in which they would occur and the climax is built up to and solved at the end.
    

• How is this book organized?
• What do you notice about the way it is written?
• What is the theme of this story?
• What character traits would you use to describe Horton?