Coming of Age; Young Adult Literature; Epistolary Novel
Just Grow Up
Calling all young adults. (Yes, we'll include you.)
Step right up and see how a little boy can start out "licking" (1.1) a book so much that he writes to the author. Follow along to the end of the story to see how he's no longer a helpless, clueless kid.
Even though Leigh hasn't made it to the hair-on-the-chest, driving-a-car teen years, Dear Mr. Henshaw is a coming of age story. Out young hero goes from being dependent on an adult—"I was thinking if I had a father at home, maybe he could show me how to make a burglar alarm" (28.14)—to being able to make his own alarm. And it works. It gives him confidence to see that he can fix things independently.
Another part of growing up is realizing our parents aren't perfect or always right, and they can't always be there for us. (If you hadn't realized that, we're sorry for breaking the news to you.)
In other words, our parents are completely human and fallible just like us. In the beginning of the book, even though Leigh is "bothered when he doesn't phone at all which is most of the time" (16.5), he still has faith in his dad. He says:
Dad should be phoning any day now. When I said that at supper […] Mom said for me not to get my hopes up, but I know Dad will remember this time. (27.4)
Leigh is holding on to the hope that his dad's gonna come through for him. Of course, we're a little more objective and removed from the situation, and we know what's going to happen. Poor kid.
By the end of the book, Leigh has realized what the rest of us have known, that he can't "count on anything he said" (60.39). Leigh sees his dad's actions (or lack of actions), and he puts two and two together to realize that he'll never have the kind of dad he needs and wants.
When he accepts this is when he waves adios to his little kid self.
YA Lit
The story is also (obviously) young adult lit. YA literature usually refers to books written for kids 12 years and older, but we'll stretch it a bit for this book because the themes are pretty serious and sophisticated. The idea for the book came when "two little boys who didn't know one another asked [Beverly Cleary] to write about a boy whose parents were divorced" (source). This was requested by kids and written for kids.
And you. It was written for you.
Epistolary Novel
Epistolary—now there's a word Mr. Henshaw would love.
Epistolary means "made up of epistles." So that's easy.
Wait, what's an epistle? We thought you'd never ask. It means a letter or other type of communication, like a diary entry or telegram. See why Dear Mr. Henshaw is an epistolary novel? Lots of famous novels are completely made up of letters or entries in a journal, but not many novels for youth. Beverly Cleary took this classic genre and wrote one for kids.
If you think this is a cool format for a story, check out this book by Lemony Snicket. And be sure to drop the word "epistolary" around your teacher.