#95 in Middle grade
Dear Mr. Henshaw
- 134
- Pages
- about 2.5 h
- Reading time
- Newbery Medal
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Our view
“Dear Mr. Henshaw” is a quietly moving story told through a boy’s letters to his favourite author and the diary he slowly learns to keep. Beverly Cleary takes on divorce, an unreliable father and a mother stretched thin, and treats them honestly without softening them. Readers returning to it as adults find it has aged well, though some feel the narrator sounds young for his age. It remains a fine pick for middle-grade readers.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Dear Mr. Henshaw is a juvenile epistolary novel by Beverly Cleary and illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky that was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1984. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association listed the book as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children".
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.7 across 89 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 38% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Middle grade average of 8.0. That is how 7.9 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.1 | 26 | 29% |
| Hardcover | 7.5 | 63 | 71% |
Frequently asked
What age is Dear Mr. Henshaw for?
Dear Mr. Henshaw sits on the Middle grade shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 8–12. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 134 pages — shorter than 92% of the ranked books in Middle grade.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Middle grade — and a score of 7.9, the closest to this book.
