Dear Mr. Henshaw

Dear Mr. Henshaw, by Beverly Cleary, was so much better (and shorter!) than I expected. Why didn't anyone tell me what a sweet book this is?

I'm not a huge Beverly Cleary fan, mainly because I'm not terribly familiar with her books. I somehow missed her stories as a child (my parents and grandmothers tended to give me classic books as gifts, and I never stumbled across Ramona or Henry Huggins on my own). When Dear Mr. Henshaw won the Newbery in 1984, I was in college, and not paying a whole lot of attention to children's books. But I'm trying to make up for lost time now. ;-)

The title didn't instantly draw me to this book, nor did the cover. The reviews and summaries didn't really grab my interest, either - an epistolary story (ho hum) about a boy whose parents divorce (sounds depressing). I don't usually like heavy-handed "serious topic affecting youth today" kinds of kid's books.

But I was wrong (except about the cover, I still don't like the cover, or the illustrations all that much). This book was funny, not at all heavy-handed, and the format - of letters to Mr. Henshaw and diary excerpts - was perfect. Both Leigh's and Mr. Henshaw's "voices" (although you only get Mr. Henshaw's words as they are reflected by Leigh, but that's enough) were wonderful. The portrayal of the divorced parents was so skilfully done that I wondered whom Cleary modeled it on.

Sometimes it's good to be so far off the mark when it comes to judging a book by its cover and blurbs. Now what I'd really like is another book by Beverly Cleary featuring Boyd Henshaw (with maybe a few reflected notes from a teenaged Leigh?). He just sounds like someone I'd like to hear more about.

Dear Mr. Henshaw

I just finished Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary in approximately 3 hours. The story begins with the main character, a boy named Leigh, writing a letter to his favorite author. Leigh starts out as an immature boy and we see his development throughout the story through his letters. He has a hard time making friends at his new school, his parents are divorced and someone keeps stealing all the best items from his lunches! At first he deals with all of this by being down and self focused all the time.

We see through his letters how he begins to work through his problems and he even begins writing on his own for Young Writers Month at his school. It's interesting to see his transformation, and enjoyable since I myself have experienced so much transformation through reading and writing.

I thought it was fun to think back on elementary school and the time of the year when we all had to write our own short stories. I always loved that! Overall, I think this book may have won because it's a great look at the impact that most authors hope to have when they write. It was simple, but I'm glad I read it.

On another note, just being in this blogring and checking out all of your blogs has got me back into crocheting and I'm enjoying it! I also just bought my first sewing machine so I'm hoping it will be mostly fun and only slightly disasterous. We'll see!!

Happy reading!

Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary

I picked Cleary's book as my first Newberry book because as a child I'd read and loved just about everything else she wrote. I never got around to Dear Mr. Henshaw though, probably because I was already in high school when it was published.

Dear Mr. Henshaw is mostly an epistolary novel in which 10-year-old Leigh Botts is writing to his favorite author. Then, the author tells Leigh to start a journal, which mkaes up the rest of the novel. This book is terrific; it's a quick read and very funny, but addresses timeless issues for children--being the new kid, losing a parent, pet, or lunch, and finding your voice. There's lots of sly Cleary humor that I enjoyed as much now as I did when I was nine. Leigh turns up in another book, Strider, which is the name of a dog, not to be confused with Aragorn--although I'd read Cleary's version of Lord of the Rings in a second. I think Ramona could have taken care of the bad guys in fewer than three volumes.