Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Book Review: Henry Huggins, Beverly Cleary

Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary illustrated by Louis Darling, Morrow Junior Books, New York, 1950.

This book is where the writing career of Beverly Cleary started.  As a library the kids asked, why are there not books about people like us.  This sparked a collection of books about normal people.  We are introduced to all the characters of the neighborhood, but the story focusing mostly on Henry and his dog.  Cleary has a skill of creating interesting characters of her children.  Henry’s life was sort of average; until he found a dog.  He names the dog Ribsy because he was too thin and his ribs were showing.  There are many adventures, including how to get a dog home when you can’t take it on the bus, how Ribsy wins a special prize at the dog show, and who is the rightful owner to the dog.  I don’t remember reading this book, but I remember a story about a dog and ownership being determined by whether he goes to one boy or the other.  So it is likely I ready or had read to me this story at some point, but I don’t remember it at all so it was new to me.

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