Friday, March 07, 2008

Oddaptation: Horton Hears a Who

Seemed like a fine time for another Oddaptation to me, and since it is my blog... you get one! For those not familiar with my Oddaptations, you can see them all collected over on the right (cleverly under the headline "The Oddaptations"). Or if you don't want to read others, just think of them as kinda Cliff's Notes/Spark notes of picture books... but with some attitude (and rhyme) thrown in. So with no further ado...


HORTON HEARS A WHO
by Dr. Seuss
Oddaptation by Gregory K.

Every Who down in Who-ville liked Horton a lot,
But a sour kangaroo and some monkeys did NOT!
They all hated Horton, who claimed there were houses
And Whos on some dust that was too small for mouses.

So they hatched an idea.
An awful idea.
Those beasts hatched a wonderful, awful idea.

They stole the Who dust speck! They stole Horton’s clover!
When Horton re-found it, his troubles weren’t over.
Before Horton knew it, the beasts had him bound!
The Whos knew that soon they would surely be drowned!
They had to be noticed. They HAD to make noise.
‘Twas no time for shirking or playing with toys.

Then when every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small,
Was ruckusing (without any presents at all),
The beasts heard a sound rising out of the speck --
A final, clear “yopp” had saved every Who neck!

And what happened then? Well, in Who-ville they say
They gained a whole lot of protectors that day
And learned that if every last person unites
You’re probably gonna win most of your fights.
But otherwise know as you bellow and bawl...
You’re only one person, no matter how small.



It's also Poetry Friday and the links are up over at The Simple and the Ordinary. Go on and check it all out.

11 comments:

tanita✿davis said...

And now I have to go back and read ALL of the other Oddaptations. These are really cool!

christine M said...

This is great! I love your Oddaptations!

jama said...

Enjoyed this a lot! My, but you're odd :) . . .

Andromeda Jazmon said...

Nice twist at the end!

Anonymous said...

Genius ending, so bleak and anti-Seussian. *applauds*

Greg Pincus said...

Thanks, y'all. And yes... I am odd. Who's surprised?

I have to admit, by the way, that I'm actually looking forward to the movie of Horton as I think it has a shot of being truly Seuss-worthy. But it probably won't have the same ending as my Oddaptation. Just guessing :-)

Mary Lee said...

Quite timely. Now I've read both the book AND the Oddaptation before the movie. I was going to say that I'm sure they'll both be better than the movie, but I realized I would be saying that to a screenwriter. Would you be offended? I hope not!

Late Blooming Mom said...

I've said it before, but I think these Oddaptations do beg for a printed collection, in old-fashioned printed media ... adult fans of kidlit will rejoice, as will clever older kids. If you have to wait on some publisher's slush pile just to get read, then at least self-publish first ...

Saipan Writer said...

Am I the only one who thinks that a truly odd adaptation of Seuss would be in free verse, without the rhyme?

Greg Pincus said...

Yes, it would be odd not to rhyme, but when I started doing Oddaptations, I decided that they'd be in rhyme. So, they are. Except I did break that rule once, for my epic Oddaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

But other than that, I think the genre will rhyme... just cuz!

Lee Wind, M.Ed. said...

I like your hybrid of Grinch-Who lines with Horton's opus.
Nicely conducted!

Namaste,

Lee