Dear Mr. Lang,
I just finished the book Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary. It was a good book with lots of feeling to it. I am glad I read it. I liked the way the author wrote it all in letters and diary entries. I think that the author should have made at least a little section of real story. If I could I would read it again. I also liked it because she didn't have many long, boring conversations like some authors do. I liked the main idea of the book but if I where the author I would make it longer. An example from the book is;
“Monday, January 8
Dear Mr. Pretend Henshaw,
Dad phoned me from Hermiston, Oregon! I just looked in my book of road maps and saw where it is, up there by the Columbia River. He said he was waiting for a load of potatoes. I could here a juke box and a bunch of men talking. I asked about Bandit, and he said he was fine, a great listener on a long haul even though he doesn't have much to say.”
At the beginning it was boring and I was going to give it up but I kept reading anyway. She did an OK job on the book, but she could have been more descriptive. EX “I have a black dog. His name is Bandit. He is a nice dog.” She was OK at describing the characters, but it didn't give me a very good picture in my mind and they had little characteristics. The main character is a boy who writes to an author by the name of Mr. Henshaw after reading his book. The author suggested to the boy to write a diary. There weren't many characters so I couldn't really get an understanding of how the characters interacted with each other, but I don't like unnecessary characters because they distract you from the story. I am glad that she didn't add useless things in her book such as; boring conversations, explanations for nothing and extra “do nothing” characters. I give it a 6/10 rating.
