Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Henry and the Clubhouse

Henry and the Clubhouse. Beverly Cleary. 1962. HarperCollins. 192 pages.

Henry Huggins had a lot of good ideas that fall when he first had his paper route, but somehow his ideas had a way of not turning out as he had planned. Something always went wrong.

Henry is trying to prove to everyone that he's responsible enough for his own paper route. But that isn't always easy. For example, one day he forgets about his paper route because he gets super-excited about the opportunity to ride to the town dump in a bathtub on a trailer. (He pretends he's the president on parade.) His mother saved the day, that time, but he's been warned by his parents not to let it happen again. (The forgetting, not the riding around town in a tub.) So when Henry decides that he can responsibly build a clubhouse with his friends in his backyard AND responsibly deliver his route on time each day, he does have something to prove. Can he do the job well? Can he deliver the papers? Can he get new subscriptions to the paper? Can he collect the money for the papers on time? His job is more challenging than he at first thought.

I enjoyed this one. I did. Now, I didn't love it when Henry dressed up as an Indian for Halloween and greeted people with "How!" but the Ramona chapters were delightful as always! Ramona is in kindergarten, and she's become addicted to television, addicted to commercials. She LOVES to sing jingles and quote commercials to any one and every one she meets in the neighborhood. Her favorite TV personality is Sheriff Bud. When Ramona becomes too much of a pest--a shadow on his paper route--Henry gets a horribly terribly wonderful idea on how to get her to behave. But will it work in the way he intended?

Other Henry Huggins books: Henry Huggins, Henry and Beezus, Henry and Ribsy. Henry and the Paper Route.

Other Ramona books: Beezus and Ramona, Ramona the Pest, Ramona the Brave, Ramona and Her Father, Ramona and Her Mother, Ramona Quimby Age 8, Ramona Forever, Ramona's World.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Young Readers

1 comment:

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