I can see why I tried to read this book once, many moons ago. I can also see why I dropped it, and why I could only remember two things from it: the main character tries to write a story about a trucker made of wax, and he writes "Dear Mr. Pretend Henshaw" in his diary.
Pretty much everyone knows the basic story of Dear Mr. Henshaw. Leigh, the main character, has parents who've gotten divorced; he lives with his mom because his dad drives around the country hauling things in a truck.
It's mostly an epistolary novel, if you consider his diary to be letters. For school, Leigh writes a letter to his favorite author (the titular Mr. Henshaw) containing a list of questions. Mr. Henshaw writes a letter back to Leigh containing a list of questions of his own, and the whole thing snowballs into Leigh keeping a diary consisting of "letters" to Mr. Pretend Henshaw, |writing a story for a collection of stuff by schoolchildren, and meeting a famous author. Who is not Mr. Henshaw, but has met him|.
In with all that, Leigh also writes down his feelings about stuff like living in a trailer, his dad not being there for him at all, people repeatedly stealing his lunch, et cetera.
Don't get me wrong from my first description; I rate this thing 4 stars.
Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E. Nothing here that's inappropriate for small children. Dear Mr. Henshaw would make a bad videogame, though.
Favorite lines:
Leigh tries to write a story about "the ten-foot wax man", and his descriptions of his attempts to do that are some of the funnier bits of Dear Mr. Henshaw.
(Endnote: The name "Henshaw" has no meaning to me anymore.)
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