I love reading Dr. Seuss books to groups of children, and when I was at Target I would get that opportunity annually in Read Across America. My favorite Seussian stories to read out loud are Green Eggs And Ham, Yertel The Turtle, and Horton Hears A Who. There are just some great "out loud" reading moments in all those books.
Horton Hatches An Egg was actually one of the first books I ever remember owning (along with Scuffy The Tug Boat - which I had memorized), but Horton Hears A Who was one of my all-time favorites.  It not only has a great hero in Horton, but some truly dramatic moments, and the classic "redemption of a villian" storyline which to me is one fo my favorite plots in literature.
Horton hears the voice of a Who, from a dust speck on a clover, and all is well until a meddling neighbor, Jane Kangaroo gets involved.  Not believing Horton that there are live beings she cannot see on the dust speck on that clover, she enlists the help of the Black-bottomed Bird and the nefarious Wickersham Brothers and wants to Boil That Dust Speck in a kettle full of boiling Beezle-Nut Stew.

The Chuck Jones 1970 cartoon version (no, I have NOT seen the CGI contemporary feature film, but the images in this post are from The Animation Art Gallery, where production cels of classic animation can be purchased) is a true animation classic, and when I selected "boil" for our Manic Monday word, I could hear the Wickersham Brothers chanting "Boil That Dust Speck, Boil That Dust Speck!" over and over in my head...
In the story, it is only when Horton implores the tiny Whos to make themselves audibly known to the not-so-nice Jane and crew, that the story of character growth can come through.  We can all grow, and learn, and change.
So long as we don't Boil That Dust Speck.
 
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