"Dear Mr. Henshaw"

What elementary teacher hasn't read the book "Dear Mr. Henshaw" written by Beverly Clearly and illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky to their class? If you haven't read this one yet, you must. What a classic story written by Beverly Cleary. She always writes great books that I can read to my students. This particular book has won the John NewBerry Medal of Honor. The age recommendation is for readers from 8-12 years old. I have read this to my fourth graders we well as my ESL middle school class. I purchased this book for $5.99 paperback edition.

Main Characters:

Leigh Botts
Mr. Boyd Henshaw
Leigh's Father
Leigh's Mother
Bandit the dog

What the story is about:

Leigh Botts is a little boy who lives with his mom. His father and mother are divorced and it hasn't been easy on Leigh. Leigh's dog Bandit stays with his father. He drives a truck cross country and makes deliveries. His mom works part time for a catering company. She is going back to school to become a nurse.

The premise of this story is that Leigh writes letters to his favorite author Mr. Boyd Henshaw. He started writing to him when he was in second grade and has been writing to him ever since. At first, Leigh never hears back from Mr. Henshaw and Leigh is upset. Finally, when Leigh is in the sixth grade and in a new town, Mr. Henshaw finally responds to Leigh's letters in writing. Mr. Henshaw sends a list of questions that he wants Leigh to answer. Leigh is mad about this. He doesn't want to answer his questions but his mom makes him.

After writing to Mr. Henshaw for a while, Leigh starts to use this opportunity more of like a journal. He tells Mr. Henshaw about his day and if he is having any problems. He tells him that someone has been stealing his lunch everyday at school. Leigh goes down to the hardware store and rigs an alarm on his lunch box. The alarm ends up going off in the middle of class and Leigh gets in trouble for it. Leigh starts writing everyday. He even tells Mr. Henshaw about the difficulties of having divorced parents and how much he misses his father. Mr. Henshaw writes back and gives him helpful tips on how to write. Leigh practices everyday and ends up winning an award for one his writing pieces. He wins the chance to meet a famous author named Angela Badger. He wasn't too excited because she mainly writes about girls and girl things. When he did meet her she said she was impressed by his writing and called him an author. Leigh couldn't believe that a real author actually called him an author. He was so proud of himself and realized all of the hard work and advice he took from his favorite author have actually helped him.

Sum it up:

What I like about this book is that children can relate to a family of divorce. They know how hard it is to be separated from your loved ones. The populations that I teach, many of their families are spread out and still live in their original country. The United States is a second home to them and they do a lot off communicating with family members back home. Writing letters like Leigh Botts did is a great way of keeping in touch. Nowadays with all of the new technology, many of my students use the internet to stay in touch. They can email than, instant message them, or even set up a web cam and see them. My parents live in Florida and we set up a webcam. A few times a week I sign on and my parents can see my son. It's a great way to stay in touch. I think Leigh Botts would have loved a computer.

There are so many different activities you can do with your class. You can teach them letter writing, journal writing, etc... This book is a great teaching tool for your classroom. Even if your students only read the book and a write a book report about it. They will still learn a lot from Leigh Botts.

The sequel to this book is called "Strider." I haven't had the chance to read it yet but the summary that I was told is that Leigh's dog Bandit runs away and Leigh adopts a stray dog named Strider. I am curious to see if he still is into writing and how successful he has become with it. I will let you know.