Henry and Beezus

Henry Huggins #2

by Beverly Cleary, Louis Darling (Illustrations)

All Henry Huggins wants is his very own bicycle, a shiny red one to ride up and down Klickitat Street. But no matter how Henry tries to raise money for the bike of his dreams--from selling bubble gum to delivering newspapers--he always ends up with too much trouble and not enough money. But Henry's old friend Beezus has an idea that may turn Henry's worst trouble yet into a real business success!
--back cover

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Middle Grade, Audiobook, Classics, Realistic Fiction, Chapter Books

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

Beverly Atlee Cleary was an American writer of children's and young adult fiction. One of America's most successful authors, 91 million copies of her books have been sold worldwide since her first book was published in 1950. Some of her best known characters are Ramona Quimby and Beezus Quimby, Henry Huggins and his dog Ribsy, and Ralph S. Mouse.
The majority of Cleary's books are set in the Grant Park neighborhood of northeast Portland, Oregon, where she was raised, and she has been credited as one of the first authors of children's literature to figure emotional realism in the narratives of her characters, often children in middle-class families. Her first children's book was Henry Huggins after a question from a kid when Cleary was a librarian. Cleary won the 1981 National Book Award for Ramona and Her Mother and the 1984 Newbery Medal for Dear Mr. Henshaw. For her lifetime contributions to American literature, she received the National Medal of Arts, recognition as a Library of Congress Living Legend, and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal from the Association for Library Service to Children. The Beverly Cleary School, a public school in Portland, was named after her, and several statues of her most famous characters were erected in Grant Park in 1995. Cleary died on March 25, 2021, at the age of 104.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, this is it: the lowest-rated Beverly Cleary book on my "read-out-loud" shelf. Henry was a lot more endearing in Henry Huggins. In Henry and Beezus, he struggles to earn enough money to buy a bike. Beezus offers her encouragement and support along the way, and Henry barely appreciates it. After all, she's a stupid girl with silly, girly ideas. I know Henry is just a kid, and I know it's 1952, but his sexist attitudes got annoying.

We read the 1990 edition with new illustrations. The kids wear updated clothing styles and one child even sports a bike helmet. I didn't appreciate this attempt at revising history. Henry has old-fashioned notions about girls and can buy a box of crackers for ten cents, but his friend is somehow half a century ahead on the bike laws? It's confusing.

I did like the part in which Beezus and Ramona enter Henry's house gnawing on cabbage cores. That was an odd and somehow delightful little detail!

[Behin · Rating 5 out of 5]

خیلی باحال بود، منو برد تو خاطراتم...بچگیِ من با کتابای رامونا معنی پیدا کرد:)
وقتی فهمیدم رامونا تو این کتابم هست خیلی خوشحال شدم
خیلی فاز باحالی داره، دوسش دارم😍

[Tatevik · Rating 4 out of 5]

These books are so ideal! Just the right way to show the children the normal life of a family. I enjoy them a lot. Still, my favourites from the author are Ramona series.

[Bahar · Rating 5 out of 5]

خیلی دوستش داشتم، به نظرم هر از چندگاهی باید یه کتاب این سبکی بخونم برای فراموش نکردن زمان های سپری شده:)

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Henry and Beezus is another of Beverly Clearly's great books for children. Henry Huggins wants a bike. His friend Beatrice ("Beezus") Quimby is helping him to raise money for it - helped and hindered by Beezus's unpredictable little sister Ramona! The story begins with a really funny episode about Henry's dog, Ribsy, and a neighbour's barbeque. Then Henry becomes a bubble gum king - but things don't work out as he intended! Then - how can a dog get a parking ticket? Henry has to find out and get that sorted out! There are lots of other entertaining situations in this book. Henry has to face an auction - and even to eat dog food - before getting his bike in the most amazing and funny way anyone can imagine!

This is one of the Henry Huggins stories - but now we are really getting to know Beezus and Ramona, and there are lots more great books to follow starring them. Read all these books in Beverly Cleary's Klickitat Street saga - and enjoy!

[Belle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Henry Huggins. Quintessential boy. I was with him all the way until he ate that dog food. Henry Huggins. Quintessential boy.

[Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweet book! Reminds me of Homer Price. A "good ol boy" in the Baby Boomer generation. And since Henry is maybe 9 years old, he thinks with the entirety of the brain in his skull. He has a good friend who lives down the street: Beatrice, popularly known as Beezus.

Ugh, just look at this cutie, who just won a raffle prize!

He thinks it's super cool to tie a balloon on to the button on his beanie!!!

All Henry wants in life is a new bicycle. He spends this entire book trying to raise money, pennies at a time, to buy a bicycle that is worth SIXTY entire DOLLARS.

And all he wants to do with it is this:

He wants to wear his imitation raccoon skin cap, and he wants to remove the removable tail, and he wants to snap the tail on to the handle bars of his brand new shiny red bicycle! (And if the bike has a bell and lights on the front and back, that would be nice too, but those can be purchased at a later date, thankyou)

OMG Henry is good and conscientious and sweet! He takes care of his dog Ribsy. And he is a good friend to his neighbor Beezus, AND to her little sister Ramona.

He is just a darn good citizen, dontcha know?!!

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second book in the Henry Huggins series, is about a boy wanting a bike.
Henry Huggins wants a new bike above anything else.
Some funny moments in this book, is when Ribsy is giving a parking ticket. When Henry finds boxes of gum and starts selling it at school, to add to his bike fund. My favorite moment is when Beezus and Ramona try to help Henry buy a used bike, the results were not what Henry had in mind.
The ending is happy and satisfying.

[Dest · Rating 3 out of 5]

My daughter and I have read all the Ramona books, so now we're moving on to the Henry books. There were some funny parts for sure (like when Henry trains Ribsy to retrieve their newspaper but Ribsy ends up retrieving *every* newspaper on Klickitat Street or when Henry thinks he can sell gum to get rich and it backfires big time) but Henry's attitude toward girls was not cool. Even though this is an everyday life book, I'm tagging it as historical fiction because of the casual sexism.

I had always thought of Henry Huggins as a nice kid but in this book he treats Ramona and Beezus with such disdain. I think part of it might've been the audiobook narrator's performance. He put this harsh edge in Henry's voice that doesn't need to be there.

Why do I keep choosing these Beverly Cleary books when they are so dated? They crack us up and the characters are very endearing. Ramona is like a real person to us. We also read contemporary everyday life stories (we've enjoyed Ivy + Bean, Mya Tibbs, Meet Yasmin, Jasmine Toguchi, and especially Anna Hibiscus). But Ramona remains #1 in our hearts.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

In her third book for middle-grade readers, Henry Huggins returns. This time he wants a bicycle, another icon of 1950s suburban life. His adventures and efforts to procure the bike are shared with Beezus and her little sister Ramona, who feature in some of the later stories.

A third grade boy being forced into hanging out with a girl is the issue here. Funnily enough, I don't recall it being a big deal if you played with boys or girls when I was that age, but there was only one boy among several girls in my neighborhood, so it could have been more of a problem for him.

Henry's dog Ribsy as much of a character as the kids. The neighborhood bully gets what's coming to him and everyone has fun. Cleary makes it clear that a kid's problems are as real and important as any adult's.

I am still mystified as to how I missed these books when I was that age. I can only figure that I was living that life instead of reading about it.

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although the title is a bit misleading (Beezus really isn't a core character in this story), it was still another delightful, timeless and funny story about the adventures of Henry Huggins. The main plot in this book is Henry's desire to get a bike of his own. I laughed out loud several times, especially at the antics of Beezus's little sister Ramona, so that makes me think I'll have to read the Ramona books next.

[Wan Yu( Stephanie) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a supereasy book but also advantageous. Advantageous means useful and helpful. Two big ideas I found in this book is don't be jealous and work on your own. Henry is a teenager who always got jealous of what people had. For example, in this summer, he got jealous in what the big showoff Scooter had - a bicycle. Henry wanted one too, and he tried many ways to trick his parents but failed. Therefore, he decided to get one by himself. What is he going to do in order to get one? Steal? NO, he went to work... I think we can't be jealous of what others had, because if you jealous, means you have desires on things. Desires lead to suffering when you don't achieve what you want. but I think as a teenager, we should try to work and achieve your goal on your own, because that's another way helps us to grow.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 5 out of 5]

Escape from election year on Klickitat Street.
Hearken back to an age when kids wandered around the neighborhood without fear and their biggest fear was not getting gunned down at school like the news and paranoid helipad parents tell them, but was rather how to prepare the shitty bike they won at a police auction (again, sans parents) for the neighborhood street parade.
In his quest to get a bike, Henry suffers through all manner of torments, a mid-20th century Sisyphus who would eat dog food to secure his dream. At one point, he even gets into back alley confectionarcotics, selling bubble gum to other kids on the playground out of a stack of boxes he found in a vacant lot. Nowadays he'd probably get sued. Or shot.
Revisit a time when children's stories were written for children, not for grown-ups who can't stomach having children of their own or who are trapped within them, when kids were just kids dealing with normal kid stuff, not warring with vampires, zombies, wishful-thinkings for sadistic dystopias, or sexual identities!

[Kris (My Novelesque Life) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Want to do a reread so will review at that time.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I liked about it was that the entire story focused on Henry's obsession with getting his own bicycle, and the obstacles along the way. In the scene where Henry won all the beauty coupons, and was so embarrassed about it, at first I thought--Why doesn't he just give them all to his mother? He could have even announced into the microphone that he was giving them to his mother, thus saving himself from some of the teasing. However, the way it really turned out--his mother and other women actually purchasing the coupons from him--worked out much better for Henry.

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's hard to believe Henry Huggins was once Beverly Cleary's marquee character, given the later explosion of popularity enjoyed by a character spun off from Henry's world, the legendary Ramona Quimby. When Henry and Beezus first saw the light of day in 1952, preteen Henry was star of the show, with Ramona popping up only now and then to add spice to the comfortable suburban setting of the story. It wouldn't be long before Ramona earned her own series of acclaimed books that would become a large part of the author's legacy, but for now, in reading Henry and Beezus, we can relax in an earlier era of Beverly Cleary's career, when Henry Huggins still ruled the roost. If any female author of the time understood boys, it was Beverly Cleary, as she demonstrates repeatedly in these pages. Pleasantly episodic by nature, the book tells of Henry's preoccupation with getting a bicycle of his own, so he doesn't have to sit on the sideline while bigger kids like Scooter McCarthy have all the fun. Henry's fixation on getting a bike isn't a passing fancy, but it's going to take a lot of trying if he wants to wind up with his shiny red favorite from the bike store as a trophy in his garage. But Henry won't give up on earning his chromatic mount, and luckily for him, his friend Beezus wants to help. Moneymaking schemes, legit job opportunities, one-in-a-million shots...they're all fair game to Henry if they bring him closer to the new bicycle he so desires. If only he can find a way to raise the $59.95 needed to purchase it.

Henry and Beezus is a hybrid short-story collection and linear novel, so many of its chapters present narratives and lessons that are primarily self-contained. The basics of supply and demand are laid out succinctly and comprehensively during the bubble gum escapade, when Henry finds forty-nine boxes of gum abandoned by the side of the street, each box holding hundreds of bubble gum balls. Piggybacking on his good fortune in finding the boxes by establishing a temporary retail operation among the kids at school sounds like a great way to earn funds for a bike, but the actual playing out of the scenario goes differently than Henry hoped. Supply and demand is a complicated business, and most of its principles appear in the bubble gum chapter. Henry tries to deliver newspapers, he arranges to attend a fire sale of bikes being auctioned off at the police station, he saves every cent that passes through his hands in hopes of buying even a secondhand bicycle if the chance would come, but the prize he desires manages to elude him most of the way. His plans always seem to derail before arriving at their final destination, and it looks as if Henry may never have the money to pay for his shiny new ride. Is a boy supposed to be without a bike for his entire childhood?

Henry's attempts to accrue the requisite cash for his bicycle are the thread that holds Henry and Beezus together, but it's his mini adventures with Beezus and Ramona and his other friends that lends the story memorability. At age four, still pre-kindergarten, Ramona's antics are some of the funniest parts of the book, even when they exasperate Henry and Beezus. Henry is an honest, dependable kid, not given to mischief (see Beverly Cleary's appealingly roguish Otis Spofford), whimsical spending, or forgetting the reason he's saving his funds when tempted to let the money burn a hole in his pocket. Most of the time Henry doesn't even mind hanging out with a girl, as long as she's one like Beezus, more interested in having fun like a typical boy than dabbling in the daintier asides of other girls their age. But their friendship is slowly changing, and Henry balks at spending too much time with Beezus. As they get older there's no telling how their relationship will be affected, but in Henry and Beezus she's still a loyal friend willing to help him in his quest to buy a bike, and there's little of greater satisfaction in this world than finally reaching such a momentous goal after trying so hard for so long to get there. With the wind ruffling his hair and breezing through the raccoon tail of his Daniel Boone hat, Henry Huggins won't ever forget the moment his determination paid off and he soared happily through his neighborhood for the first time on winged wheels. All the hard work and disappointment was worth the trouble, in the end.

Beverly Cleary is a dear favorite author of mine, and Henry and Beezus is for sure worth two and a half stars. The two-star rating that shows on here doesn't do justice to my enjoyment of the book. The kids in Henry and Beezus are remarkably realistic, their attitudes and thoughts as authentic as Beverly Cleary could have made them. She understands kids and how to write about them effectively, which is why many of her books have become classics of children's literature. I encourage you, reader, to have a good time with Henry and Beezus during this era of their youth, before the little sister became the main draw. Because once Ramona started kindergarten, life would never be the same! :-)

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect summer book for two boys who love their bikes.

[Julie H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun to read these with my little one. The Portland settings are fun too!

[Elisabeth Manley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ellie’s Review:
Comme ci, comme ça. I liked that he got a bike finally.

[Janella]

Such a sweet innocent book. : )

[Jennifer Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super cute continuation of the series

[Abby Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Isaiah LOVES Henry!

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I definitely enjoyed rereading Henry and Beezus. Unlike the Ramona series, I've only read the Henry Huggins books once or twice. Henry Huggins, our hero, really, really wants a bicycle. His parents can't afford to give him one, and, he doesn't expect it of them. He doesn't feel entitled to it. If only there was a way to earn enough money to buy it himself.

"Henry and The Roast." Readers meet Henry and Ribsy, learn of his great desire for a bicycle, and witness Ribsy steal a roast from the neighbor's barbecue. Readers also meet Henry's nemesis: Scooter, a boy with a bicycle and a paper route. A boy who happens along just in time to "save the day" or save the roast and save Ribsy from a dog fight.

"Henry Gets Rich." Henry discovers abandoned boxes of gumballs. He needs Beezus' red wagon to carry them back home. But borrowing the wagon means getting Beezus and Ramona to tag along with him.

"Ramona," coaxed Beezus, "can't you play that game some other time?"
"What game?" asked Henry. He couldn't see that Ramona was playing any game.
"She's playing she's waiting for a bus," explained Beezus.
Henry groaned. It was the dumbest game he had ever heard of. "Doesn't she know it isn't any fun just to sit on a box?" he asked, looking nervously up and down the street. If only he could be sure no one else had discovered his gum!
"Sh-h," whispered Beezus. "She thinks it's fun and I don't want her to find out it isn't. It keeps her quiet." Then she said to her little sister, "If you get in the wagon, Henry and I'll pull you and you can pretend you're riding on the bus." (40)

Henry thinks the gum a great discovery. He can even sell it to all his friends and classmates. He can make some money for his bike fund. But the teachers aren't happy about all the gum. (Neither are the janitors). And he finds it increasingly hard to sell gum after the first day or two. Maybe the gum wasn't such a wonderful discovery after all.

"The Untraining of Ribsy" Henry has the opportunity to take over Scooter's paper route for a week. A dollar will help his bike fund that's for sure. But can he stop Ribsy from "stealing" papers on the route? Beezus and Ramona make an appearance in this chapter as well. In fact, it is Ramona who accidentally provides a solution.

"Henry Parks His Dog" and "Beezus Makes A Bid" Henry, Beezus, and Ramona go to a police auction. Henry's trying to buy a bicycle at the auction with his $4.04. (He had to spend a dime to buy Ramona a snack. He didn't want to stop at the store and "park his dog" outside, but, he had to do something to get Ramona to behave.) Will he get a good deal? Or will all the kids tease him?

"The Boy Who Ate Dog Food" Everyone is excited about the grand opening of Colossal Market. There will be prizes and free samples. Henry and his parents go. As do Beezus and her family, I believe. (I think all the neighbors go.) Henry is lucky and unlucky. He wins something. But the prize, at first, feels very unlucky. He won $50 of work at a BEAUTY SALON. He doesn't need manicures, waves, and facials. Everyone is laughing. Which leads him to accept a dare to eat dog food. But then he realizes that he can SELL his prize and get the money for what he wants most...

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

We listened to the audio book of this going to and from Maine for the holidays. It's good, but Henry Huggins has never been quite as funny as Ramona Quimby. Luckily Ramona shows up at least once a chapter or so to show people the slug in her pocket or threaten to throw up. Classic Ramona.
When we listen to these I always end up trying to decide how dated they are. You would think this would be extremely dated, being from the early 50s, but for the most part it holds up. Dogs stealing meat from neighbors, Henry really wanting a new bike, a big shopping center opening and the kids all scrounging up free samples - still pretty relevant to today's youth. Freddy (5) did not have trouble following along with the story or understanding why it was funny. It is true that paper routes don't seem to exist much anymore...a paper route is a major plot point. And do they even make "girl's bikes" anymore? It never made much sense that there were two kinds of bikes anyway. And it is a little frustrating how often Henry complains about hanging out with Beezus, or about Beezus's ideas being dumb because she's a girl. I mean, she's basically his best friend and is the only one who is consistently friendly and helpful. Henry seems a bit ungrateful.

[Sara ♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second installment of Beverly Cleary's stories about Henry Higgins, this time with quite a lot of Beezus (and Ramona) tagging along. There were seven chapters, each containing a story about Henry:

1. Ribsy and the Roast - in which Ribsy steals someone's BBQ meat
2. Henry Gets Rich - in which everyone gets sick of bubble gum
3. The Untraining of Ribsy - in which Ribsy UNlearns to fetch newspapers
4. Henry Parks His Dog - in which Henry gets an odd traffic violation
5. Beezus Makes a Bid - in which Beezus helps Henry procure a bike
6. Henry's Bargain Bike - in which Henry must fix up said bike
7. The Boy who Ate Dog Food - in which Henry finally has a bout of luck. And eats some dog food, of course...

They were all very cute and would make for great bedtime stories for kids—especially for boys who like dogs!

[The Styling Librarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Henry Huggins, Henry and Beezus, Henry and Ribsy, Henry and the Paper Route, Henry and the Clubhouse, and Ribsy – I was quite happy to listen to this collection of books! It was quitespecial to listen to Beverly Cleary introduce the book and honestly loved listening to Neil Patrick Harris narrate most of the stories. What a treasured character I just love remembering from childhood. I’m happy that I’ve been able to introduce my son to Henry Huggins, perfect for his age and life experiences from dealing with pushy kids to losing teeth to loving dogs to taking on responsibility.

[Linnae · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this was our favorite so far of the Henry Huggins stories. The kids laughed out loud at several points in the story. Ramona's hijinks were more funny than annoying (to us anyway!) and Henry's adventures were at the same time ordinary and just a touch past what the kids have experienced. A lifetime supply of bubblegum! A dog that learned his trick a little too well and also gets a parking ticket.

And of course, the gem that still comes up in conversation at times:
"There goes the boy that ate the dog food."

We loved it!

[Ariel · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is no better comfort re-read than Beverly Cleqry, so being home sick I have been burrowing deep in the heart of Klickitat Street. Sometimes Henry's dismissal of his loyal friend Beezus is unselfconsciously sexist and annoying, but mostly the story of a boy who is trying to earn enough money for a bicycle with his friends' help remarkably undated. Also introduces the inimitable Ramona Quimby, who immediately steals any scene she is in.

[KrisTina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute. I mean nothing earth-shattering but I love listening to these books with my son, Henry. However, poor Henry Huggins seems to not think very highly of himself. My cousin told me that she doesn't read these books to her elementary school classroom because the language seems so out-dated - which it is- but I think listening helps overcome that. These are just sweet stories. I have no doubt that we'll continue reading/listening to them.

[Lars Guthrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cleary's third book, the second Henry Huggins, and although Beezus makes it into the title, it's her little sister who steals the show, insisting on being "wound up" before she can move, eating only the lions in animal crackers box, generally demonstrating the iconoclasm that resulted in her taking center stage in seven of Cleary's titles. Highly recommended.