Dear Mr. Henshaw

Leigh buys a composition notebook to serve as his journal and prints a warning on the cover to snoopers. However, Leigh admits to Mr. Henshaw that he isn’t sure how to begin journaling.

Mr. Henshaw responds with another postcard and suggests that Leigh treat his diary like a letter and pretend to write to someone. Leigh admits that he used to write letters to his dad but stopped because he never responded. Leigh decides he will pretend to write to Mr. Henshaw in his diary.

Leigh composes a diary entry as if he were writing a letter to Mr. Henshaw. Some days Leigh eats his lunch on the way to school so no one will steal it. On this day he saves it so he won’t get hungry later and someone steals the stuffed mushrooms he’s packed. Fearing being labeled a tattler, Leigh doesn’t tell his teacher, but he decides to try and catch the thief by watching for students coming in and out of the room. When that doesn’t work, he thinks he might try putting a fake name on the lunchbox.

It’s a few days until Christmas and Leigh writes in his diary that he hasn’t received a gift in the mail from his father, and he wishes that he would come visit instead. His mother says that won’t happen.

On Christmas Eve, Leigh writes in his diary about his favorite Christmas memory. His family was still together, and his dad raced home to be on time for dinner. Over the meal, Leigh’s dad told a story about seeing a solitary shoe on the highway and wondering what had happened to its mate. The family took turns making up silly songs about lost shoes. At the time Leigh thought, “Mom and Dad hadn’t laughed that much for a long time, and I hoped they would never stop” (42). After that, Leigh asked his dad if he’d seen any lost shoes each time he came home.

On Christmas Day, Leigh writes in his diary to “Pretend Mr. Henshaw” and shares what happened the night before. One of his dad’s trucker friends delivered a present, a brand-new down coat. Katy invited Leigh and his mother to share Christmas dinner with her and a few other employees.

Leigh composes his next journal entry on January 3 because he had many appointments before school started again. He explains that he tried the fake name trick to protect his lunch and used “Joe Kelly” as his name because it’s the name of the protagonist in Ways to Amuse a Dog. The trick worked and no one stole the treat Katy put in his lunchbox.

Leigh receives a phone call from his father, who is in Oregon picking up a load of potatoes. Leigh asks after Bandit and asks his dad if he can travel with him over the summer, but his father doesn’t give him a definitive answer. Bill is sending the late child support check and is glad Leigh likes his new coat. Leigh confesses in his journal that he wishes his family lived together but getting a phone call from his dad made his day.

Leigh shares a funny story about Mr. Fridley. He always stands near the trash can in the lunchroom and reminds students not to throw away their retainers by saying, “Don’t lose your false teeth” (47). Leigh’s mom is glad his teeth are straight and they don’t have to pay for orthodontics.

Still writing in his journal, Leigh says that someone stole the cheesecake from his lunch. When Mr. Fridley saw him frowning, he suggested that he put an alarm on his lunch box. Leigh is also anticipating a call from his father. Leigh often asks his mother why she ended the marriage, and she says, “It takes two people to get a divorce” (49). Leigh decides to wrap his lunch in tape the following day.

The tape experiment is a failure as Leigh struggles to open his lunch and everyone makes fun of him. Leigh keeps thinking about Mr. Fridley’s alarm idea but he can’t figure out how to engineer it. Leigh and his father used to build things together all the time. He tells the pretend Mr. Henshaw that he reviewed his past letter and the writing tips he sent, particularly the one about listening to others. Leigh decides to transcribe a conversation he has with his mother. He asks her if she will ever remarry, and she explains that there aren’t many available men. She once dated a man named Charlie, but he was only looking for money. Leigh’s mother says that his father loved his truck more than her, and Leigh doesn’t truly understand this statement. When she asks him why he is interviewing her, Leigh says that he wishes he had a man in the house to help him build a lunchbox alarm.

On January 12, Leigh resumes writing real letters to Mr. Henshaw. The librarian at school brought Leigh a copy of Mr. Henshaw’s newest book, Beggar Bears, and Leigh is excited to be the first one in school to read it. He feels happy that someone at school besides Mr. Fridley cares for him.

Leigh finishes Beggar Bears quickly and writes to Mr. Henshaw to share his thoughts. Even though the book wasn’t humorous like his previous one, Leigh still enjoyed it. The book tells the story of a mother bear and her cubs, who live in Yellowstone National Park. The mother bear dies when she eats food in a plastic bag left by tourists. When the orphaned cubs nearly starve in the winter, a park ranger cares for them and teaches them to survive on their own. Leigh is moved by the story, and it makes him wonder about father bears. Leigh’s father still hasn’t called him, which makes Leigh think he doesn’t care about him.

Mr. Henshaw sends Leigh a postcard, so Leigh writes him a letter thanking him. On the postcard, Mr. Henshaw encourages Leigh to continue writing in his journal, and Leigh says he plans to because it makes him feel good. Leigh’s teacher has noticed his writing progress and wants him to submit a story for a school writing contest. If he wins, Leigh will get to have lunch with a famous author. Leigh also receives a postcard from his father, who is in Kansas and promises to call soon. Leigh would like to travel with his father to Wyoming so he could meet Mr. Henshaw.

On January 20, Leigh resumes writing letters in his diary. Leigh is struggling to formulate an idea for his story submission. He remembers that Mr. Henshaw advised him to “write like [himself], not like somebody else” (61), but waiting for his father to contact him is distracting. Leigh confesses that he still spends a lot of time alone.

Katy packs leftover wedding cake in Leigh’s lunch but someone steals it. Mr. Fridley notices Leigh’s sadness, and Leigh shares with him that his father still hasn’t called. Mr. Fridley encourages him by saying that many kids in the school have absent fathers. Leigh thinks it’s nice that Mr. Fridley watches out for everyone and wishes that he was his grandfather.

By the end of January, Leigh’s father still hasn’t called him, and despite his mother telling him to let it go, Leigh feels sad and abandoned.

Leigh composes an entry the next day in which he tries to make sense of his father’s silence. Looking at a map, he estimates that his father should be in California and can’t understand why he hasn’t called. Leigh’s mother tells him that the life of a trucker is hard and that there are many reasons why he might be distracted or unable to get to the phone. Leigh is still confused, and she explains that it’s not the truck that he loves, but the freedom it provides. Leigh’s mother used to ride along with him, and she knows how much he enjoys the scenery and the thrill of new places. Leigh wonders to himself if his parents would have been happier if he had never been born.

The next day, Leigh writes in his journal that he is angry. Every time the phone rings, he thinks it is his father and he is disappointed. He decides he is angry with both his parents for divorcing and wishes Bandit was there to comfort him.

Leigh hears that the sugar refinery is closing, which means his father may lose his job hauling sugar beets, lessening the chances that Leigh will see him soon.

While his mother meets with a group of friends, Leigh must stay in his room with the women’s napping children. He says the women meet to share their problems, “which are mostly men, money, kids, and landlords” (65). Leigh remembers a time when he rode along with his father to deliver a load of tomatoes. When they ate at a truck stop for dinner, all the waitresses knew his father and called him by his CB radio name “Wild Bill.” Leigh noticed that all the other truckers ate quickly and got back on the road but his father lingered, socializing and playing video games.

Leigh is home alone while his mother is catering for a golf tournament. Stewing in anger toward his father, he picks up the phone and dials his father’s number, assuming he won’t answer since he’s on the road. However, his father does answer, and Leigh is shocked that he’s home and hasn’t bothered to call. Bill says he was planning to call, but Leigh doesn’t believe him. He tells his father about the stolen lunches, but his father doesn’t seem to care. Leigh reiterates how he has been anticipating his call, but Bill claims bad weather Delayed him. Leigh asks about Bandit, and his father is silent. Leigh instantly knows something is wrong. Bill explains that Bandit escaped out of the cab when they were at a truck stop. Leigh can’t believe his father left Bandit in the snow. Bill assures him that he is a smart dog and probably jumped into another truck. Leigh begins to cry, and just when he thinks it couldn’t get worse, he hears a boy in the background telling Bill they are going out for pizza. Leigh hangs up the phone without saying goodbye.

Leigh doesn’t address his next diary entry to a pretend Mr. Henshaw because he’s become comfortable sharing his feelings on paper. After the disastrous phone call, he cries a lot, especially when he thinks about his father taking another boy to get pizza. When his mother comes home, Leigh tries to conceal his pain, but she knows something is wrong and he finally tells her everything. Leigh’s mother explains that she and Bill got married very young and she saw him as a way to escape from her small town and her father’s addiction to alcohol. Though she enjoyed life on the road with him for a time, once she became pregnant with Leigh, she wanted to be home. Through tears, Bonnie explains that it’s not Leigh’s fault that they got divorced but that she grew up while Bill still wanted to live in the moment. She tries to soothe Leigh’s broken heart over Bandit by saying that the dog seems to like jumping into trucks since that’s the way Bill first found him. Leigh asks his mother if she still loves his father, but she doesn’t want to answer. Leigh’s mother drives them to get fried chicken and they eat it in the car near the ocean while listening to the waves.