"Strider"

The sequel to the book "Dear Mr. Henshaw" written by Beverly Clearly is called "Strider." I couldn't wait to read it. I really enjoyed reading "Dear Mr. Henshaw" to my class and I was pleasantly surprised to see how much I enjoyed reading the sequel to my class too. Beverly Clearly doesn't let us down with this sequel. The story line continues with Leigh Botts. His parents are still divorced. He is older now and it discovering who he is as a person, not a little boy anymore. He still has his friend Barry and as well as a couple of new characters that are introduced in the sequel. We are introduced to Kevin the rich kid, Strider the dog, Geneva the "girl" friend, and Mrs. Smerling the landlady.

Plot

Leigh Botts is discovering who he is a teenager, no longer a little boy. His best friend Barry and he find a stray dog on the beach. They end up keeping the dog and sharing custody of him. Leigh gets him in the afternoons and evenings while Barry keeps him during the day. They name the dog Strider because he loves to run next to them on the beach. I think this dog was abused by a previous owner so the boys are careful not tell yell commands at him. They teach him how to read the signs "SIT" and "STAY."

I originally thought this book was mostly about Leigh and the dog, Strider but I was wrong. It is more about Leigh growing up. He keeps writing in his journal but he no longer write to Mr. Henshaw. Instead, he keeps more of a journal or a diary. He still enjoys writing but he discovers he likes to run. He tries out for track and he makes it. He does well with track and meets new friends in this book.

His dad ends up losing his rig and finds a job closer to Leigh and his mom. This book shows up more of a relationship building between Leigh and his dad. His dad helps him build a fence for Strider. Leigh grows tall and everyone notices he is all grown up. Leigh does well with his writing for school even though he doesn't always like to follow his English teachers' rules.

We watch Leigh experience good times and bad. He has some fights with his best friend Barry about shared custody of the dog, Strider. In the end, they work it out and Strider becomes Leigh's dog. The landlady lets him build a fence for Strider. We learn by the end of this book that if it weren't for Strider, Leigh never would have broken out of his shell. Strider and Leigh would run every morning on the beach and that is when Leigh realized how much he enjoyed running and went out for the track team. By going out for track, he met Geneva. He also met Kevin who was extremely rich. He also learns that even though Leigh and his mom live in a cottage, that Leigh refers to as the "shack," there is more love in that shack that Kevin has in his bag fancy house. Leigh learns many lessons in this story as well as the reader.

I am comfortable in saying that this book was a page-turner. My students enjoyed this book a lot and they all wrote book reports about it. They made comparison from the book Dear Mr. Henshaw to this new book Strider. They compared Leigh as a child to Leigh as a young adult. The students first made a Venn Diagram showing the similarities and differences of Leigh Botts. For example, one of the similarities was that he still enjoyed writing. One of the differences was that he was no longer the new shy kid.

I originally bought this book for $3.99 paperback. The illustrations were also done by Paul O. Zelinsky. I wasn't too impressed with the drawings in this book. They are very far and few between. I would have liked to see have seen more. The one of Kevin's house was done nicely though, that I did like. This book was not an award-winning book, which I was surprised about.

I would highly recommend this book to any classroom teacher. My students enjoyed and so did I. Make sure to read Dear Mr. Henshaw first or else your class won't understand many of the references made throughout this book.

Other book by this author:

• Henry Huggins
• The Mouse and the Motorcycle
• Ramona and her Father
• Runaway Ralph
• Henry and Ribsy
• Beezus and Ramona
• Socks
• Ramona the Pest
• Muggie Maggie
• Ramona and her Mother