“Horton Hears A Who”

“Horton Hears A Who” is one of many Dr. Seuss’s classics that we can all learn from. Dr Seuss has this amazing way of teaching us grand lessons in simple forms. This story teaches us that a person is a person no matter how small. Being less than five feet tall I approve this message.

I especially enjoyed this story recently because I have begun writing children’s poetry myself. It’s always good to learn from the masters. The artwork fits perfectly for this account. The color palette is pretty much blue and orange (some pink for the clover), a high contrast. The story is about big vs. little I think the idea of having hot and cool, blue and orange as the color palette helps push that metaphor. There is one page that is almost completely dark blue with Horton running up the mountain trying to catch the black bottomed bird as he carries the speck off to hide it from him, we only see a small splash of pink. I think the blue represents being big and powerful. In that scene the big person has the power, against the small slash of pink, our little Who’s! The Who’s are never painted in dark blue only light.

Eventually the Who’s have to be heard or they will be destroyed. All the Who’s are making noise except one. A tiny Who boy that in the end lets out a Yopp and that little extra is what saves them all. It was not only the big people who needed the lesson but little Who people as well. So to everyone big or small, remember a person is a person no matter how small.