Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss (1966, Hardcover)

My two oldest daughters had a Christmas morning tradition at their grandparent's house every year of reading this touching and amusing story of how the love and devotion of a "mom" to be will carry "her" through some very trying times to get the baby "she" cherishes so much .

I have actually had this book in my own daycare for only about a year, and the older kids love to read it when they can sit down and enjoy it with no interruptions from a younger child.

Horton works very hard through rain and shine to hatch an egg he promised to care for. He didn't quite realize the long hours and hard work it would end up being, but he follows through with his promise until the very end.

This book has a bit lengthy story line to it, so it's excellent for children with a longer attention span, at least 3-5 minutes. The cartoon type illustrations are quite catchy, and much of the text is rhythmical. Since some is quite repetitive, the kids know what to say about Horton numerous times by the end of the book.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone who works with older children or those with a longer attention span.

Thank you for taking the time to read my review, and I hope it's helpful in your decision whether this book is right for you.

Sincerely,

Mrs. skywalker_track

The story of "Horton" and "Mayzie, the lazy bird" had been a childhood memory to me until we ordered this book, along with many others in the Dr. Seuss catalog, for our toddler-age granddaughters. I also had vivid memories of the original Warner Brothers cartoon version, which, except for some hilarious embellishments and pop-culture movie star references of that time, was pretty faithful to the story. We read the story to our 3 year old granddaughters, who became instantly enthralled with it. They loved the drawings, and as I read the story to them, grandpop did the refrain, "I meant what I said and I said what I meant, an elephant faithful 100 per cent!" The meaning of Horton being the good parent and deserving of the baby was not lost on the little ones. Since their mom and dad were in the process of adopting a baby brother, the story had even more meaning for them than most youngsters. The illustration of Horton sitting on the egg while covered with ice and snow is their favorite and one of the girls will get the book out just to gaze lovingly at Horton, suffering for the sake of keeping his promise. Get this book and read it to your little ones. They will grow up loving it now as much as we baby boomers did when we were their age.
And, for extra laughs, the original cartoon is available on YouTube!

This is another great lesson from Dr. Suess. Keeping your promise no matter what happens to you.

We love books at our house, but cannot afford to buy them at retail. We usually start at the library and find books that we like. Then we go to Ebay to try and find a nice used copy for our home library. Most books on Ebay are a million times better than the very worn and battered copies at our library.

Our four year old first got Horton Hears a Who. We liked it so much that we looked for the other Horton book, Horton Hatches an Egg. He liked it just as much. It was a good life lesson of keeping promises. Last year he wouldn't have understood when he was three. Four is a perfect age for introducing it. I highly recommend this book.

This is my favorite Dr. Seuss book of all time. It's definitely a classic to be read again and again. I used to be a first grade teacher's aide and I read this book to the students frequently and they never grew tired of hearing how Horton was determined to stay on the lazy bird's egg no matter what obstacles came his way. And in the end, his determination paid off because what hatched from the egg had an amazing resemblence to him. This book is sure to brighten any child's day and adults love it too! There is a valuable lesson to be learned from this book. Just read between the lines and you'll figure it out!

This is my husband's favorite book to read to our son. It has fun pictures, animals, and the classic Dr. Seuss rhyme that so many people love. Our son is not his biological son and the story is great for anyone in this situation or for adopted children. However, it's also great for teaching lessons about faithfulness and dedication. I highly recommend this book. I read it before, and enjoyed it, but after having my son it unexpectedly had even more meaning and brought tears to my eyes when I realized that there was a layer of depth behind the fun story.