Newbery Medal (John Newbery Medal)
Dear Mr. Henshaw: A Newbery Award Winner
An epistolary coming-of-age story in which a boy writes letters to his favorite author, Mr. Henshaw, and gradually works through hurt, loneliness, family tensions, and self-understanding with direct warmth.
Work Information
Writing gives shape to a boy’s loneliness and helps him move forward.
Through an exchange of letters, the novel carefully traces a boy’s anxieties, growth, and changing distance from his family.
Book Information
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- 1983-08-22
- Pages
- 144 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 13.97 x 1.55 x 20.32 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780688024055
- ISBN-10
- 9780688024055
- Price
- 3903 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Children's Books/Activities, Crafts & Games/Activity Books
Newbery Medal Winner * Teachers’ Top 100 Books for Children * ALA Notable Children’s Book Beverly Cleary’s timeless Newbery Medal-winning book explores difficult topics like divorce, insecurity, and bullying through the thoughts and emotions of a sixth-grade boy as he writes to his favorite author, Boyd Henshaw. After his parents separate, Leigh Botts moves to a new town with his mother. Struggling to make friends and deal with his anger toward his absent father, Leigh loses himself in a class assignment in which he must write to his favorite author. When Mr. Henshaw responds, the two form an unexpected friendship that will change Leigh’s life forever. From the beloved author of the Henry Huggins, Ramona Quimby, and Ralph S. Mouse series comes an epistolary novel about how to navigate and heal from life’s growing pains.
Beverly Cleary is one of America's most beloved authors. As a child, she struggled with reading and writing. But by third grade, after spending much time in her public library in Portland, Oregon, she found her skills had greatly improved. Before long, her school librarian was saying that she should write children's books when she grew up. Instead she became a librarian. When a young boy asked her, "Where are the books about kids like us?" she remembered her teacher's encouragement and was inspired to write the books she'd longed to read but couldn't find when she was younger. She based her funny stories on her own neighborhood experiences and the sort of children she knew. And so, the Klickitat Street gang was born! Mrs. Cleary's books have earned her many prestigious awards, including the American Library Association's Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, presented to her in recognition of her lasting contribution to children's literature. Dear Mr. Henshaw won the Newbery Medal, and Ramona Quimby, Age 8 and Ramona and Her Father have been named Newbery Honor Books. Her characters, including Beezus and Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, and Ralph, the motorcycle-riding mouse, have delighted children for generations. Paul O. Zelinsky is the illustrator of many acclaimed books for children. He is the illustrator of Kelly Bingham’s Z Is for Moose and Circle, Square, Moose ; Jack Prelutsky’s Awful Ogre’s Awful Day ; Emily Jenkins’s Toys Go Out ; Alex London’s Still Life ; and Anne Isaac’s Dust Devil. He is also the creator of the now-classic interactive book The Wheels on the Bus . His retelling of Rapunzel was awarded the 1998 Caldecott Medal. Rumpelstiltskin , Hansel and Gretel , and Swamp Angel , with different authors, all garnered him a Caldecott Honor. Paul O. Zelinsky lives in New York.
Reviews
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父と子
主人公リーは作家ヘンショーさんの大ファン。 手紙を出し続けるうちに、ふたりはペンパルに。 作家志望のリーはヘンショーさんの勧めで日記をつけはじめるが、 日記のはじまりは、リーがいつも出す手紙と同じ『Dear Mr.Henshaw』。 日記を通して、両親の離婚とそれに対する男の子の心境を描く。 自分を置いて家を出てしまった父親への怒り、寂しさ、愛情。 帰ってきてほしいのに、電話ではそう言えなかったり･･･。 ランチ泥棒や小説コンクールの楽しいエピソードも交えられ、 日記にさえ素直に書ききれないリーの父親への想いが伝わってくる。
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G5 で読みました
アメリカンスクールに通う５年生の授業で指定された本の中の１冊でした。 主人公、その両親の気持ちを読み取り、理解するという部分で驚きました。
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Era lo que esperaba. La calidad es buena y todo está bien. Es una lata tener que escribir en este espacio. En mis siguientes compras no daré nunca mi opinion por lo complicado que lo hacen. Saludos
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Why I Think Boys May Enjoy This I decided to review this book as the first one on my Books for Boys blog for a very personal reason: this is the book I recall that both got me in love with reading and also made me want to be a writer. In preparation for this review, I reread the book to see how different it is with 35 year old eyes instead of 8 year old eyes and this is what I learned: I am still Leigh Botts, but grown up. In one of the first letters, Leigh wrote “when I grow up I want to be a famous book writer with a beard like you.” And that’s what I became! Also, I remembered a major reason why I felt this story connected with me as a youth. Leigh’s experience with a hard-working single mother and an often absentee (but likable) father mirrored my childhood exactly. Cleary handles this situation that has become more and more common in complex family structures and does such an amazing job of filtering it through the eyes of a middle school boy. I also think that the first-person perspective and epistolary (meaning, a series of letters presented as a story) makes the material extremely accessible to any young reader. Further, it handles very challenging pre-teen situations such as divorce, being a new kid at school, & being bullied (his special lunch foods being stolen repeatedly) with a finesse that makes you feel like it actually was written by a sixth grade boy. She even does a great job of demonstrating some of the angsty rage that ebbs and flows in such a person throughout the book. Content/Appropriateness This book is more than appropriate for anyone even younger than middle school. Since it is written in first-person from Leigh’s perspective, the language selection and sentence complexity are simplified as well. This adds to both the realism of the book and the ease of accessibility. Obviously, as is well known with an author like Beverly Cleary, there is no age inappropriate content to scare away parents that might be concerned about such things. The most difficult emotional material stems around the divorce and broken promises by Leigh’s dad, but you can tell by the end of the book that Leigh is well on his way to accepting the positive aspects of his father along with understanding his shortcomings. Rating 5/5 Giant Cartoon Mallets from Toonopolis, The Blog's Books for Boys review.
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Ich lebe dieses Buch!!! Es ist einfach total toll geschrieben und der Protagonist ein echter Sympathieträger, mit dem man echt mitfühlen kann. Obwohl es eigentlich ein Kinderbuch ist, ist es für Jugendliche und Erwachsene ebenfalls wunderschön.
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To guide my grand children writing skills
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My 10 year old boy liked the book very much