Dear Mr. Henshaw is a juvenile-reader epistolary novel by Beverly Cleary. It is about a little boy, Leigh Botts and his life from the 2nd till the 6th grades. The story is full of humor, funny episodes from school life (as the one when somebody ate Leigh’s lunch and the way he stopped that), but in the same time the story is serious and even sad. The little boy has “adult” problems: his parents divorced and he thinks that it was his fault. His mother is working hard and doesn’t have much time for him, his father drives a truck and rarely calls him, he doesn’t have friends. But, nevertheless, he is an optimistic child and keeps his chin up. He wants to become an author, as great as Mr. Henshaw, his favorite one, is. He writes Mr. Henshaw and tells him how much he likes his books and asks him several questions, and then he starts writing a diary, which he begins with “Dear Mr. Pretended Henshaw”, because it is easier for him to imagine, that he tells something to him but not to the piece of paper.
Reading his letters to Mr. Henshaw we can even trace how his attitude toward the author changes, especially, looking at the end of the letter. For example, his first messages, he ends with the following expressions: “Your freind”, “Your best reader”, “Sincerely”, “Your number 1 fan”, but when his mother made him to answer all Mr. Henshaw’s questions, he was amused and irritated, so he ended his letters in another way: “Disgusted reader”, “Your pooped reader”, “Your ex-friend”, “Still disgusted” “Still your No. 1 fan”, and my favorite one “Fooey on you”.
The range of problems depicted in the story is quite wide: relationship between parents and children; divorce and its consequences, influence on a child’s behavior; the child and society; how children cope with their problems are the most vivid. The main distinctive feature of the story is that the reader may not just see what is going on in the text, but to feel it, to go through it together with Leigh. He grows up on our eyes, we can trace how his world outlook becomes more mature: “It takes two people to get a divorce”, “A book doesn’t have to be funny to be good”, “It helps to have a friend”, “I felt sad and a whole lot better at the same time.”
The author uses the method of retrospection (Christmas celebrating), to transfer the reader the full canvas of events, which influenced antagonist’s character formation. This book has a valuable message both for children and adults, it is not difficult for reading and understanding but is quite wise and unobtrusive at the same time.
