Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary

I was referred to this book by a good friend of mine. She had read it when she was a child and thought it was a good book for me to read.  She read it the second time as an adult and had different perspective on the book when she was younger.  I remember when I was a child I didn't like to read at all.  Maybe thats why I never check out this kind of book or books from the library. As of late I've been reading a little more then usual. It's been helping me to kill some time. I wasn't really sure what I was getting into this book but I'm always open for a new read and beside this was a short one.

As I read more into it, I started to enjoy reading the book and finish it up fairly fast.  While reading this book this little boy and his mother where living alone.  Leigh Botts' mother had been divorced from his father. His mother's reason for divorcing his father because he enjoys his truck more then her. She said something like this, "too many lonely days and nights not knowing where he was, too much waiting for phone calls he forget to make because he were whooping it up at some truck stop playing video games and that he never get old of that kinda of stuff".  My ex-wife and I got married young just like Leigh's parents and didn't really knew eachother that well.  As we grow older together we found things we didn't like about each other.  Somehow we grew apart. Finally we decided to go our separate ways. During the era of this book, divorce rates was really low. Nowadays divorce rates are about 50% or even more as for the second  marriage divorce rates are in the high 60to 70% in most divorce reports claims.

What made me really sad while reading this book was that not only did my divorce effected my ex-wife and I but also our children.  In this book there were some section were Leigh  was very sad that he didn't get that much time to spend with his father. Thought his father did not love him. I wonder if my kids feels that way, feel being left out or not being love when I'm not with them? I have had many conversations with my kids about my divorce and they seem to be okay. I believe they say that to make me feel better not to wonder or have so much concerns for them. Anyhow it made me really sad to see what Leigh had went through with the divorce of his parents. He question himself, "was he the reason for his parents divorce and if he wasn't born would they still be together".  He wanted his parents to get back together, but in reality as the kids grow older they realized that if their parents are unhappy together then it would be a good idea to be apart. I just hope that my kids will understand, but as for now they are a little confuse and that is okay for now.  They just need some understanding and encouragement to guide them through this tough time. 

It was great that Leigh was very resourceful and finding things to do to keep him away from trouble. Beside staying out of trouble he started to write a diary to better his writing skills so that one day he could be writer or author. I have no inspiration to be an author but however I would like to be coming a better writer someday too. I think this book is a great read for all ages, so if you haven't read this it would be a good opportunity for short read.