Dear Mr. Henshaw

“My teacher taught me a trick about friends. The i goes before e so that at the end it will spell end.”

Another hallmark of Cleary’s writing is emphasizing the relationship between student and teacher. Other characters in Cleary’s novels learn similar spelling tricks from their teachers. This quote demonstrates Leigh’s growth as he is learning to spell properly.

“I hate living in a mobile home park.”

This quote marks the first instance of Leigh being vulnerable in his letters to Mr. Henshaw and sharing his feelings. Leigh’s revelation about where his family lives also clues the reader into his socioeconomic status and is the first indication that Leigh is unhappy in his life.

“This year I am in the sixth grade in a new school and a different town.”

Leigh shares that he has moved, a big transition in his young life. Though he doesn’t share it, this move is due to his parent’s divorce. From this point on, Leigh’s letters to Mr. Henshaw become more frequent.

“In first and second grades kids used to call me Leigh the Flea, but I have grown.”

This quote marks another moment where Leigh reveals himself to Mr. Henshaw through his letter writing. Mr. Henshaw’s list of questions causes Leigh to look at himself in a different way than before. He shares that in addition to his family problems, he is sometimes bullied at school.

“Next door is a gas station that goes ping-ping, ping-ping every time a car drives in. They turn off the pinger at 10:00 P.M.”

In response to his question about where he lives, Leigh tells Mr. Henshaw about the small cottage he and his mother rent. Each night he falls asleep to the sound of customers coming and going at the gas station, which is at first annoying, but soon becomes a ritualistic comfort to him. Cleary uses onomatopoeia to describe the sound of the system the station uses to alert them when a customer needs service.

“I can hear the ocean and the sea lions barking. They sound like dogs, and I think of Bandit.”

At times throughout the story, nature is a great comfort to Leigh in his sadness. However, this instance brings pain as the sounds of sea lions remind him of his beloved dog, Bandit, whom he lost in his parents’ divorce. Bandit will become a central motif in the story, particularly concerning Leigh’s relationship with his father.

“Mom used to get mad at Dad for whooping it up, but she didn’t mean throwing up. She meant he stayed too long at that truck stop outside of town.”

Children often don’t understand the language adults use, and Mr. Fridley’s usage of the phrase “whooping it up” makes Leigh think of how his mother uses it differently. This quote marks another moment where Leigh shares some of his struggles as he reveals to Mr. Henshaw that his mother disagreed with his father’s behavior.

“Mom tells me to go to school but to walk slow which is hard work.”

Leigh shares with Mr. Henshaw that due to his mother’s work schedule, he spends a lot of time alone. To combat his loneliness, he goes to school but is often way too early. Leigh’s statement that walking slower is hard work emblemizes his entire experience of his parents’ divorce. For Leigh, being a child of divorce is hard work.

“We’d go barreling along the freeway looking down on the tops of ordinary cars, then down the offramp and back to school just before the bell rang. I guess I wouldn’t seem so medium then.”

In response to Mr. Henshaw’s question about what he wishes for, Leigh shares a dream he has of his father taking him on a ride in his truck and then dropping him off at school. Leigh’s fantasy reveals the deep need he has for love, affection, and attention from his father. He feels that his father’s presence will help him feel less small to his peers and himself.

“Katy sends me little cheesecakes baked just for me or stuffed mushrooms and little things she calls canapés (ka-na-pāys). Sometimes I get a slice of quiche (kēēsh).”

Food is a recurring motif in Leigh’s life for several reasons. First, he and his mother don’t have a lot of money, and they often struggle to afford meals. Ironically, Leigh’s mother works for a catering business that serves fancy and sometimes extravagant food. Katy treats Leigh to some of the catering food in his lunchbox, which makes him feel special. However, his classmates steal his food, which makes him feel frustrated, angry, and helpless.

“Katy has a heart as big as a football stadium. It was a lovely dinner for lonely hearts.”

After their Christmas dinner spent at Katy’s, Bonnie describes her affection for and appreciation of her boss to Leigh, using hyperbole and simile to describe Katy’s generous spirit. Though Katy never directly enters the story, Cleary uses this dialogue and Leigh’s descriptions of her to develop her character and reveal that she is a kind person who looks after her employees.

“Today I wrote a fictitious name or pseud. as they sometimes say, on my lunchbag.”

Leigh refers here to the use of a pseudonym or pen name, a tactic authors have used for hundreds of years. In the past, female authors were forced to write under a fake name since publishers wouldn’t publish books by women. Other authors, such as Charles Dickens and Benjamin Franklin, used pen names to write about controversial social topics without fear of retribution. Some authors just use fake names for fun or to create a buzz about their novels. Leigh’s decision to try a fake name displays his creative thinking skills and how he takes lessons he learns from authors and applies them to his life.

“He said he’d see. (I hate answers like that.)”

Leigh repeatedly asks his father to spend more time with him by taking him on a trip. Bill never offers his son a direct answer, and Leigh is perceptive enough to spot his father’s reluctance to commit. Through this quote, Cleary shows her skill at capturing the thought process of a child who can understand when an adult is avoiding telling them the truth.

“I wish I had a grandfather like Mr. Fridley. He is so nice, sort of baggy and comfortable.”

Leigh’s admission to his diary that he would like to have Mr. Fridley as his grandfather displays his need for male guidance. Without his father near, Leigh attempts to fill the void with his pen pal relationship with Mr. Henshaw and his friendship with Mr. Fridley. Interestingly, he compares Mr. Fridley to clothing that is loose and easy to wear, which shows that he longs for an uncomplicated relationship or mentorship that brings him comfort as opposed to heartache.

“I am filled with wrath (I got that out of a book, but not one of yours).”

Leigh uses humor to express his deep pain over his father’s lack of care. The quote displays Leigh’s continued love of books and reading. It also exemplifies his character development. At the beginning of the story, Leigh misspelled words in his letters, but over time his writing skills have improved as well as his vocabulary.

“Mom turned on the windshield wipers and out in the dark we could see the white of the breakers. We opened the windows so we could hear them roll in and break, one after another.”

After Leigh hits a low point in his grief over his fractured relationship with his father, he and his mother both share their pain and experience a moment of peace as they eat dinner in the car and watch the ocean. The relentless breaking waves symbolize the seemingly endless train of misfortunes they experience. At the same time, the sound of untamed nature brings them peace and healing.

“Then I discovered some of the branches looked strange, as if they were covered with little brown sticks.”

Leigh’s visit to the butterfly trees is a transformative moment for him as he realizes things aren’t always as they seem. Using figurative language to describe the odd appearance of the trees, he at first doesn’t see the beauty in the branches. It isn’t until the sticks turn into a pulsating mass of butterflies that he realizes what he is truly seeing. This quote illustrates the power of the natural world to inspire and heal. After this experience, Leigh gets the idea for his alarm.

“That kind of ending doesn’t seem right to me. I don’t know why.”

Leigh struggles with how to conclude his wax man story. He refuses to give it a formulaic happy ending like his classmates have for their stories. Leigh is a realist because his life has been hard, and he wants to tell the truth in his stories.

“I began to feel like some sort of a hero. Maybe I’m not so medium after all.”

Leigh’s lunchbox alarm project begins as a way to keep his classmates from stealing his lunch, but it turns into an avenue for him to make friends. Instead of catching the thief, Leigh gains respect from his classmates and he learns that he is not the only one whose lunch is being stolen as other kids beg him to make them an alarm.

“I think what I really meant was, Have you found another boy to take my place?”

Though he can’t summon the courage to tell his father how he feels, Leigh’s journal becomes a place where he can be honest about his feelings. He must make peace with his father’s distance, but after overhearing another boy in his father’s house, Leigh’s greatest fear becomes being replaced.

“It helps to have a friend.”

Barry befriends Leigh after asking him to invent an alarm for his bedroom. Leigh’s friendship with Barry marks a turning point in his life. Barry is the fulfillment of Leigh’s wish to have an invite to someone’s home. Best of all, Barry doesn’t judge Leigh based on where or how he lives, but instead just enjoys spending time with his friend.

“She called me an author. A real live author called me an author.”

Mrs. Badger is at first a mystery to Leigh, as he isn’t certain how to make conversation with her. However, when she shares her love of his story and calls him an author, her encouraging words transform the way Leigh sees himself. Though the lunch isn’t with his favorite author Mr. Henshaw, Mrs. Badger builds upon what Mr. Henshaw has already taught Leigh about becoming a writer and inspires him to be confident in his passion and abilities.

“I still think about that day every time I haul grapes to a winery. I’m glad you remember it, too.”

After sharing his prize-winning story with his father, Leigh hears these meaningful words from Bill. This quote exemplifies the power of memory and proves to Leigh that his father does love and care for him.