40 Fun Facts About Dear Mr. Henshaw

Which book by Mr. Henshaw does Leigh Botts love so much that he writes to its author year after year?

Ways to Amuse a Dog stays with Leigh for years. He builds a diorama of it in fourth grade and gives a book report on it in fifth.

What is the name of Leigh Botts's dog, who rides along in his father's truck after the divorce?

Bandit got his name from the red bandanna he wore in place of a collar. He simply jumped into the truck cab one day and stayed there.

What does Leigh Botts find covering the trees on an after-school walk that finally lifts his gloomy mood?

Butterflies cover the trees so thickly that Leigh misses them at first, until the sun comes out and they take flight. On the run home he notices the alarm boxes on the shops.

What does Leigh Botts's father call him on the phone instead of using his name, much to Leigh's annoyance?

Kid is the word that grates on Leigh, along with his father never saying he misses him. Worse still are the many weeks when no call comes at all.

What does Leigh Botts's mother refuse to have repaired, leaving him bored enough to write to Mr. Henshaw?

The television stays broken, so a bored Leigh grudgingly works through the author's list one letter at a time. He signs one of those letters as an ex-friend.

Which American children's book prize did Beverly Cleary win in 1984 for Dear Mr. Henshaw?

The Newbery Medal finally went to Cleary after two near misses. Earlier novels of hers had been named Honor Books in 1978 and 1982.

Which food does a boy in the background ask about when Leigh Botts phones his father's trailer?

Pizza is what the unseen boy wants to go out for, and hearing it makes Leigh hang up. He cries afterwards, hurt that another child is off to eat with his father.

What kind of business employs Leigh Botts's mother part-time and supplies the fancy treats in his lunch bag?

A catering firm run by her childhood friend Katy has her cooking for weddings and parties. Katy sends goodies home with her to go into Leigh's lunches.

Which word does Leigh Botts add to Mr. Henshaw's name when he starts addressing diary entries to the author?

Pretend goes between Mr. and Henshaw because Leigh felt silly writing to nobody. Later he finds he can simply put his thoughts on paper and drops the device.

What does Leigh Botts tell his father to do with the family dog as the visit ends?

Keep him for company is Leigh's verdict, thinking of his father's long, lonely drives. The dog hops into the cab as if riding along was what he had wanted all along.

In which year of school is Leigh Botts when he writes his very first misspelled fan letter to Mr. Henshaw?

Second grade is where the story opens, with a short fan letter full of spelling mistakes. By sixth grade Leigh is bombarding the same author with a list of things to answer by Friday.

What does Mr. Henshaw enclose with his joking late reply that leaves Leigh Botts fuming about extra work?

His own questionnaire, ten items long, was really a set of writing prompts in disguise. It gets Leigh telling the author about himself, his family and the things he wishes for.

What kind of dwelling did Leigh Botts and his parents share before the divorce in Dear Mr. Henshaw?

A mobile home was all the family could manage once the new truck swallowed their money. Leigh's mother is glad the tiny cottage they live in now cannot be hauled away.

What is Leigh Botts's mother studying to become at community college alongside her part-time job?

A nurse is the goal: she is training as a licensed vocational nurse. Leigh loves her cooking and only wishes she did more of it at home.

What is the name of the school custodian who jokes that Leigh Botts needs a burglar alarm for his lunch?

Mr. Fridley also makes pupils laugh by calling their retainers false teeth when he reminds them not to throw them away. His alarm joke plants the idea Leigh later builds.

What Christmas present from his father reaches Leigh Botts late on Christmas Eve, brought by a stranger?

A jacket was exactly what Leigh had been wanting. The next day he and his mother go to Katy's for Christmas dinner.

Which classmate invites Leigh Botts home after school to help put an alarm on his door?

Barry notices Leigh after the lunchbox alarm goes off in the cafeteria and soon becomes a friend. Lacking the right battery for the job, they play with his models instead.

Which crop are Leigh Botts and his father hauling in the true story he enters in the writing contest?

Grapes are the load in Leigh's memory of the day his father took him along in the truck. He dashes the piece off with one day to spare, leaving out the waitress and the video games.

What recognition does Leigh Botts's trucking story earn in the Young Writers' Yearbook contest?

Honorable mention brings no prize, and Leigh admits he is disappointed not to be meeting the famous author. He shrugs it off as one of those times you lose.

How does Leigh Botts's mother answer when his father asks whether there is any chance for them?

She refuses him firmly, however much Leigh had hoped for a reunion. When the truck pulls away again he feels grateful for the visit and sad at the same time.

To which seaside California town do Leigh Botts and his mother move after the divorce in Dear Mr. Henshaw?

Pacific Grove suits Leigh's mother, who has always loved ocean breezes. The real town borders Pebble Beach, home of the famous golf links.

In which Central Valley city did Leigh Botts live before the divorce, where his father still keeps a trailer?

Bakersfield sits among the farms whose produce truckers like Leigh's father haul around the valley. Leigh calls the long, straight interstate through those fields boring.

What blunder by the custodian does Leigh Botts spot before class, leading to a morning job at school?

Flying a flag upside down, the state one, was the slip Leigh saw while killing time before the doors opened. Asked to help with the flags daily, he no longer had to dawdle on the walk in.

From which state does Mr. Henshaw send Leigh Botts a postcard saying he is busy writing and chopping wood?

Wyoming surprises Leigh, who thought the author lived in Alaska. The card carries a suggestion that changes everything: start keeping a diary.

What do Leigh Botts and his mother buy and eat in the car by the beach after his upsetting phone call?

Fried chicken eaten while watching the waves settles them both. By the end of the meal Leigh is no longer angry with his mother.

What does Leigh Botts's father mail him along with a note apologizing for losing the dog?

Twenty dollars came with the suggestion to buy an ice cream, which made Leigh furious. His first plan for the money is to save it toward a typewriter.

Where does a kindly old man call Leigh Botts 'son' while helping him choose parts for his lunchbox alarm?

A hardware store worker gives Leigh both the pieces and advice on putting them together. Being called son makes Leigh wish his own father would speak to him that way.

How does the mystery of who was raiding Leigh Botts's lunch end?

The culprit is never caught, and Leigh decides he is glad not to know. He reasons that whoever it was may simply have had nothing good in his own lunch.

What title does Leigh Botts give the story he finally enters in the Young Writers contest?

A Day on Dad's Rig delights the visiting author, who urges Leigh to go on writing authentic stories. His earlier attempt, about a melting wax giant, went nowhere.

Why does Leigh Botts get to attend the lunch with a famous author after all?

A winner copied her poem out of a book, so her place passed to Leigh. He is driven to the Holiday Inn, where the students sit with the author at one long table.

Who praises Leigh Botts's story at the prize lunch and thrills him by calling him an author?

Angela Badger is a popular writer whose books are mostly aimed at girls. She tells Leigh she has met Mr. Henshaw and remembers him as a young man with a streak of mischief.

How does Leigh Botts's father finally find the dog that went missing in a snowstorm?

Over the CB radio he asked other truckers every day, until one answered who had picked up a lost dog in the Sierra. The two rigs later landed in the same line at a weigh scale.

What did Leigh Botts and his parents make up funny songs about at their last Christmas together?

Lost shoes inspired a round of silly songs that had the three of them laughing. Leigh looks back on that Christmas, with its small tree and good food, as far better than the next.

Dear Mr. Henshaw is told entirely through letters and diary entries, making it what kind of novel?

Epistolary comes from epistle, meaning a letter. Plenty of famous novels are built entirely from letters or journal entries, but few of them were written for children.

Before Dear Mr. Henshaw, Beverly Cleary was best known for books about which younger sister of Beezus?

Ramona Quimby was slipped into Cleary's Henry Huggins stories when she noticed that every child in them seemed to be an only child. She went on to star in a series of her own.

What is the title of Beverly Cleary's 1991 sequel to Dear Mr. Henshaw, named after a dog found on a beach?

Strider picks up two years later, with Leigh starting high school. He and a friend find the abandoned dog and agree to share custody of him, as divorced parents do with children.

Who asked Beverly Cleary to write about a child of divorced parents, the request behind Dear Mr. Henshaw?

Two boys who did not know each other made the same request. Cleary said she had never thought about the subject but told them she would give it a try.

What nickname do the waitresses at the truck stop use for Leigh Botts's father in Dear Mr. Henshaw?

Wild Bill was known to everyone there on the exciting day Leigh rode along, and Leigh was proud to be his son. The memory returns while he waits for a promised phone call.

Which illustrator, who later won the Caldecott for Rapunzel, drew the pictures in Dear Mr. Henshaw?

Paul O. Zelinsky also illustrated the 1991 sequel. At Yale he took a class on children's books taught by Maurice Sendak, which set him on his career.

What is the first name of Mr. Henshaw, the children's author who receives Leigh Botts's letters?

Boyd Henshaw never appears in person, and readers know him only through what Leigh writes back. All three of his books that Leigh mentions have an animal in the title.