By: Beverly Cleary
Publisher: HaperCollins
Reading Level: 7-11 years
Number of pages: 144
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Summary: Leigh Botts is a young boy (second grade) whose parents are divorced. As an assignment in school he is to write to his favorite author so he write to Boyd Henshaw. In response to his letter, Mr. Henshaw writes Leigh back with a list of questions. As Leigh continues to write to Mr. Henshaw, you learn a lot about his home life and what kind of person Leigh is. (The book is written in letter/journal form). After Leigh has written several letters to Mr. Henshaw, Mr. Henshaw suggests that Leigh keep and write all these things in a journal. Leigh does so, but occasionally will write Mr. Henshaw. through his journal entries we continue to learn about Leigh's life and about his nemesis "the lunch box thief" who steals his delicious snacks from his lunch almost everyday. After a few months of this, Leigh and a friend build an alarm for his lunch box that is never actually triggered by the thief.
Reaction: I thought this book was a little sad, but I suppose it is the life of a child living with a single parent. But overall I thought it was a good book and very well written. It was also a pretty quick read for me which I didn't expect.
Recommendation: I would recommend this book probably to fifth graders, maybe fourth graders. I do think that there are some more mature themes like divorce and unfulfilled promises, but depending on the audience and their maturity you might find it appropriate.
Problems: Like I said, the problems with this book would be the divorce, the mother is always out of the home working, the father never coming through on his promises to call, and Leigh being an outcast basically.
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