What Parents Should Know
Readers will instantly sympathize with the huge, gentle
egg-sitter, and will pick up on his noble motto: "I meant what
I said, and I said what I meant."
Common Sense Media Review
This is a highly moral tale without a whiff of grim old
Aesop. Its hero is a kindly, slightly goofy elephant who's the
soul of integrity: Sir Thomas More meets Dumbo. Horton is less
preachy than Barney, more expressive than Babar, and as
steadfast and loving as Charlotte the spider.
In one of the book's best scenes, he sensibly props up Mayzie's tree, which Dr. Seuss brilliantly renders as a spindly little sapling. His fortifications completed, huge Horton assumes the nesting position: "Then carefully, / Tenderly, / Gently he crept / Up the trunk to the nest where the little egg slept."
A reading audience of kindergartners championed Horton from the first, shouting his "I meant what I said!" credo along with the narrator. Scandalized by Mayzie's irresponsibility, but tickled by her sputtering anger and disgruntlement, they were especially severe with the animals who teased Horton.
Dr. Seuss's beautiful cartoon drawings (black and white accented with red and green) bustle, zigzag, stroll, and stampede across the page. Countless witty details include grumpy Mayzie slumped way off in a corner as Horton holds his little one aloft to wild applause. Dr. Seuss's genius is especially evident in Horton's facial expressions and body language. His big, cheerful countenance morphs from an "Oy! What a headache!" face to a look of misery with red-rimmed eyes and drooping trunk to a heroic arms-crossed, chin-high "Shoot me if you must, but I shall never desert my post!" stance.
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
