Henry and the Clubhouse by Beverly Cleary is a warm, funny story for 8 year olds about a boy with a newspaper round, a clubhouse he wants to build, and a gift for forgetting one while he’s busy with the other.<\/p>\n
Henry Huggins has forty-three papers to deliver every afternoon. He’s the youngest boy doing it, which he knows perfectly well, and he is very keen that nobody decides he’s too young.<\/p>\n
On this particular Saturday he has hours to spare, so he does what he always does. He opens the fridge, gets told off, and goes outside to think about building something.<\/p>\n
Next door, the Grumbies are dragging their old bath out of the house on a blanket. It’s going to the dump. Henry helps push, and gets offered a ride.<\/p>\n
So he ends up sitting in a bathtub on a trailer, with his dog Ribsy, being towed down the main road.<\/p>\n
This is the bit your reader will remember. Henry decides he’s the president riding in a parade. The car in front becomes a column of tanks. A plane overhead becomes a whole formation.<\/p>\n
Boys on the pavement shout at him to remember to wash his back.<\/p>\n
Then a newspaper van goes past the other way and the whole daydream drops out from under him. He has forgotten the round. He’s miles from home, in a bath, in traffic, and the papers have to be out by six.<\/p>\n
That’s the shape of the whole book. Henry has a good idea. The good idea turns into a problem. The problem is entirely his own fault and he has to sort it out himself.<\/p>\n
Nothing dreadful happens here and nobody is cruel. The worry is whether a boy can hold on to a job he’s proud of, which at this age is plenty.<\/p>\n
It’s an American book and it doesn’t hide it. It’s Mom, not Mum. It’s a paper route, not a paper round, and the boys play on the sidewalk. Your reader will work all that out in a page or two.<\/p>\n
Cleary is very good on the exact moment a child realises they’ve been caught out. Henry goes from waving like a great man to wondering why he ever thought sitting in a bathtub was a good idea, in about two seconds, and it’s all his own thought process.<\/p>\n
Those two sisters up the street get a book to themselves. Beezus and Ramona puts Beezus in charge of the telling, which she would say is only fair. Ramona is the four year old who rides her tricycle round the living room blowing one note on a harmonica until she gets what she wants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Henry and the Clubhouse by Beverly Cleary is a warm, funny story for 8 year olds about a boy with a newspaper round, a clubhouse he wants to build, and a gift for forgetting one while he’s busy with the other. Henry Huggins has forty-three papers to deliver every afternoon. He’s the youngest boy doing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":11002,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":6928,"lr_next_read_anchor":"Beezus and Ramona","lr_seo_hook":"A boy on a newspaper round forgets it while riding in a bathtub."},"book_tag":[25],"age_group":[26],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[142],"class_list":["post-7640","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-friendship-books","age_group-books-for-8-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-beverly-cleary"],"yoast_title":"Henry and the Clubhouse by Beverly Cleary | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"A boy on a newspaper round forgets it while riding in a bathtub. For ages 8+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n