My three girls and I have been listening to the Henry Huggins series in the car. A couple of years ago, Audible had a great sale and I picked up most of Beverly Cleary’s book for about $4 apiece. The girls had not really been interested in listening to the books before, but we have been reading the Ramona books, and they recognized Henry as one of the minor characters from the Ramona series. He’s much older than Ramona, so they don’t really cross paths in her books, but she plays the role of young antagonist in his books. This was enough for them, and they were sold.

Henry and Beezus is the second book in the Henry Huggins series. Henry is a ten-year-old boy living in Oregon. He has a dog named Ribsy, and many neighborhood friends. There are many small incidents throughout the book, but the main theme revolves around Henry’s attempts to earn enough money to buy a bike. This proves to be rather difficult, and involves dubious schemes like finding boxes of gum in a vacant lot and selling it to his friends at school. Will Henry ever be able to earn the money for a bicycle of his very own? Read more

A couple of years ago, Audible had a great sale on children’s audiobooks. I ended up getting most of Beverly Cleary’s books for about $4 apiece. I’ve been reading the Ramona books with my seven-year-old twins, so we’ve decided to listen to the Henry Huggins books when we drive around town.

Beverly Cleary might be best known for her Ramona series, but she wrote the Henry Huggins books almost twenty years before Ramona’s first book. The girls were excited to listen to Henry Huggins because they know Henry as a friend of Ramona’s sister Beezus. Henry is also the traffic boy when Ramona is in Kindergarten, and she antagonizes him, both inadvertently and deliberately.

Henry Huggins starts a couple of years before the events in the Ramona series. When the story begins, Henry is a third grade boy who finds a stray dog after his swimming lesson. The dog is so skinny that Henry calls him Ribsy. Henry is downtown by himself, and must get the dog home on the bus. This is quite the misadventure, and it sets the tone for the rest of the book- and, I daresay- the rest of the series. Henry is not a naughty boy, but always seems to get himself into “scrapes”, usually involving Ribsy. Henry grows very attached to Ribsy, but what will happen when Ribsy’s owner comes looking for him? Read more