Horton hatches the egg is a childrens book written and illustrated by theodor geisel under the pen name dr seuss and published in 1940 by random housethe book tells the story of horton the elephant who is tricked into sitting on a birds egg while its mother mayzie takes a permanent vacation to palm beachhorton endures a number of hardships but persists often stating i meant what i . Much later after standing and sitting guard 100 percent faith fully through rain and snow horton and the egg are captured by three hunters and put in a circus coincidentally maisie happen to fly by just as the egg is about to hatch and demands that horton give it back to her written by paul penna tterracewcocom. Horton hatches the egg is one of my very favorite childrens books the story opens with mayzie a lazy bird sitting on her nest hatching an egg shes terribly bored and tired and wants a break she persuades horton the elephant to take over for her this is a good choice on her part because an elephants faithful one hundred percent so horton props up the tree so it can take his . Horton hatches the egg is the first book to feature two of seusss better known characters horton the elephant and mayzie la bird it was his fifth book published in 1940 this book sold more copies than any he had written thus far