Horton Hears a Who!

Horton Hears a Who! is a children's book written and illustrated by Theodor Seuss Geisel under the pen name Dr. Seuss and was published in 1954 by Random House.

It is the second Dr. Seuss book to feature Horton the Elephant, the first being Horton Hatches the Egg. The Whos would later reappear in How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.

Miranda Richardson read the book as part of her second audio collection of Dr. Seuss books. The other three books she narrated were Oh, the Places You'll Go!, Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?, and Happy Birthday to You!.

Plot
The book tells the story of Horton the Elephant, who, while splashing in a pool, hears a small speck of dust talking to him. Horton surmises that a small person lives on the speck and places it on a clover, vowing to protect it. He later discovers that the speck is actually a tiny planet, home to a community called Whoville, where microscopic creatures called Whos live. The Mayor of Whoville asks Horton to protect them from harm, which Horton happily agrees to, proclaiming throughout the book that "a person’s a person, no matter how small."

Throughout the book, Horton is trying to convince the Jungle of Nool that "A person is a person no matter how small" and that everyone should be treated equally. In his mission to protect the speck, Horton is ridiculed and harassed by the other animals in the jungle for believing in something they can't see or hear. He is first criticized by the sour kangaroo and her joey. The splash they make as they jump into the pool almost reaches the speck, so Horton decides to find somewhere safer for it. But the news of his odd new behavior spreads quickly, and he is soon harassed by a group of monkeys. They steal the clover from him and give it to Vlad Vladikoff, a black-bottomed eagle. Vlad flies the clover a long distance, with Horton in pursuit, until Vlad drops it into a field of clovers.

After a long search, Horton finally finds the clover with the speck on it. However, the Mayor informs him that Whoville, the town on the speck, is in bad shape from the fall, and Horton discovers that the sour kangaroo and the monkeys have caught up to him. They tie Horton up and threaten to boil the speck in a pot of "Beezle-Nut" oil. To save Whoville, Horton implores the little people to make as much noise as they can, to prove their existence. So almost everyone in Whoville shouts, sings, and plays instruments, but still no one but Horton can hear them. So the Mayor searches Whoville until he finds a very small shirker named JoJo, who is playing with a yo-yo instead of making noise. The Mayor carries him to the top of Eiffelberg Tower, where Jojo lets out a loud "Yopp!", which finally makes the kangaroo and the monkeys hear the Whos. Now convinced of the Whos' existence, the other jungle animals vow to help Horton protect the tiny community.

Background
Geisel began work on Horton Hears a Who! in the fall of 1953. The book's main theme, "a person's a person no matter how small", was Geisel's reaction to his visit to Japan, where the importance of the individual was an exciting new concept. Geisel, who had harbored strong anti-Japan sentiments before and during World War II, changed his views dramatically after the war and used this book as an allegory for the American post-war occupation of the country. He dedicated the book to a Japanese friend.

Analysis
Horton Hears a Who! is written in anapestic tetrameter, like many other Dr. Seuss books. Unlike some of his books, however, Horton contains a strong moral message, which Thomas Fensch identifies as "universal, multinational, multi-ethnic. In a word: Equality." Fensch also contends that the Mayor of Whoville's lines, "When the black-bottomed birdie let go and we dropped,/ We landed so hard that our clocks have all stopped" is a reference to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Stage
The story, along with Horton Hatches the Egg, also provides the basic plot for the 2000 Broadway musical Seussical.

Television special
Horton Hears a Who! was adapted into a half-hour animated TV special by MGM Animation/Visual Arts in 1970, directed by Chuck Jones (who also directed the television version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas!), produced by Theodor Geisel, and with narration by Hans Conried, who also voiced Horton. In this direction, the Sour Kangaroo's name is Jane, while her son is named Junior. Horton's contact in Whoville was not the Mayor, but a scientist named Dr. Hoovie (also voiced by Hans Conried). Jane was voiced by June Foray. In Russia, Alexei Karayev directed I Can Hear You in 1992, a 19-minute paint-on-glass-animated film which is based on the Russian translation of Seuss's poetry but features a very different visual style.

Film
Horton Hears a Who! was adapted into a computer-animated feature-length film of the same name in 2008, using computer animation from Blue Sky Studios, the animation arm of 20th Century Fox. The cast included Jim Carrey and Steve Carell. It was released on March 14, 2008.

VHS
In 1992, The book was made into a direct-to-video, narrated by Dustin Hoffman. And then, included the other story, Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose.

Influence
The central character of the book also inspired a design rule for cryptographic systems, known as the Horton Principle.