Henry and the Paper Route audiobook

This is a funny story that I enjoyed reading when I was much younger. A bit of nostalgia. This copy is a slightly updated version as the original was set in the 50s.

Dad: Hey Poppy, will you go get Gwen? She was just here.Poppy: Yeah.Eleanor: Are you writing the introduction.Dad: I am. Although it's lacking. I don't have much to say. We're just all waiting for Gwen.INTRODUCTIONWe spent too long reading this book. We started this back in like... April? And we're in August. I just didn't keep up with it. We read a bunch of one-night-books in the mean time.I do love Beverly Cleary, though.Dad: Poppy, tell me something that you remember about the book.Poppy: I remember the robot part. The robot part was when his new friend said that he umm. he. um. He ummm.. He said that he had a robot.Dad: Very nice, Poppy. Gwen, tell me something that YOU remember.Gwen: I remember the kitty part. Henry was hiding the kitties in his shirt, and that other girl was kindof laughing, I think.Dad: You really like our cat, don't you?Gwen: Mm-hmm.Dad: Have you ever hidden him in your shirt?Gwen: No.Dad: Why not?Gwen: Because I don't want him to scratch me. I don't think Professor would really like it.(Our cat, "The Ghost of Professor Albus Dumbledore" AKA "Professor" can sometimes be considered a rather scratchy cat.)Dad: Eleanor, tell us something you remember.Eleanor: I remember every part, but my favorite part was when Ramona was being really naughty, and taking the papers and making a fuss on the paper drive.Dad: You're not talking about the time Henry's new friend had his paper route? You're talking about the paper drive?Eleanor: I like it any time Ramona was causing trouble. Because there probably wouldn't be a Ramona book later if Ramona didn't cause trouble.Dad: Gwen told me to tell you all that Professor is our cat. She wasn't sure if you would figure that out from what I wrote above. Hey Gwen, quiz question: what was the problem everyone in the book had with kittens?Gwen: They grow up to be cats. They grow up to be cats.Dad: Do you think that's a problem? What do they mean by that problem?Gwen: People are saying that cats are naughty.Dad: What do you think they're saying, El?Eleanor: I think they mean kittens start out really, really cute and fluffy. But when they're cats, they jump out of your lap, and just nap all the time, scratch you, and they're not that cute.(Poppy had just been gone playing with the cat. She just came in crying. I'm pretty sure that cat scratched her.)Dad: Poppy, did the cat scratch you?Poppy: No. I bumped my ankle on the ottoman.Dad: Well. That doesn't prove the book's point that the problem with kittens is that they grow up to be cats. It is cute to hear Poppy say, "ottoman." ...Does anybody want to tell me their favorite part?Poppy: MEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEME!!!!Eleanor: Well, I already told you my favorite part, so....Poppy: (con't) MEMEMEMEMEMMEMEMEME!!!!Dad: What's your favorite part Poppy?Poppy: My favorite part was about the kittens.Dad: Ok. How many stars?Poppy: Four! No! No! No! One hundred!Dad: El?Eleanor: Evif.Dad: ?Eleanor: Evif. That's five backwards. *laughs*Dad: Gwen, how many stars?Gwen: Five. Well, four. Four.Dad: Alright. Four stars it is.

Henry really wants a paper route of his own, but at first he's a year too young, and then a new kid moves to the neighborhood and quickly becomes competition...Charlie is just loving the Henry books so far, and it's fun to read them with him (although Henry's attitude toward girls is a bit neanderthal-like).

Earlier this year, on the day of her death, I ran over to the Chicago Public Library website and checked out as many random ebook titles by children's author Beverly Cleary that I could get my hands on, which turned out to be eight volumes spanning her entire career that I got done reviewing a little while ago (full list at the bottom of this review). But I realized that my middle-aged reassessment of Cleary would never be truly complete without revisiting the entire series of the one character I cared about as a kid way more than any other, which is our perpetually put-upon tween hero Henry Huggins. He was the protagonist of her very first book, after all, written while working as a public librarian in Portland, Oregon, and hearing little boys in there constantly complaining about the badly outdated Victorian "Little Lord Fauntleroy" nonsense constantly being crammed down their throats at school; and he would remain Cleary's "main character" from his explosive start in 1950 all the way until the mid-'70s, when as a grandmother she embraced the new wave of "young adult" writers like Judy Blume and Betsy Byars, and took her former impish devil Ramona Quimby and aged her up to a tween herself in order to write stories more emotionally revealing and bittersweet than the Huggins books earlier in her career.But that's okay with me! I loved the Huggins books as a kid, especially that magical age between seven or eight and twelve to thirteen, and would re-read the entire six-book series seemingly every summer* (including 1950's Henry Huggins, '52's Henry and Beezus, '57's Henry and the Paper Route, '62's Henry and the Clubhouse, and '64's Ribsy). Now that I've reread them as a middle-ager, it's easy to see why, because they clearly have the same tone and spirit as Jeff Kinney's modern hit Diary of a Wimpy Kid, of tween boys acting stupid and silly and very real, but also coming to grips with some adult truths about the world for the very first time, and growing into some adult traits for the first time like natural politeness, concern for others, etc. Henry doesn't have the "stolen inheritance" adventures of Victorian children's tales, but very real adventures -- the one year he and his buddies build a clubhouse, his agony about not being old enough yet for his first summer job -- and instead of fairytale villains he has very real villains -- such as the aforementioned Ramona Quimby, seen as a hellion four-year-old in these books, a personification of Discordia who leaves a FEMA-level disaster in her wake anywhere she walks. It's basically a genteel version of social realism, showing the great drama inherent just in these small ordinary lives here in this pleasant mid-sized city; we take it so much for granted now in children's literature, so it's a fresh shock all over again to remember how groundbreaking and controversial it was when Cleary started writing books for children in this fashion, starting just one year before JD Salinger kickstarted the Young Adult genre into existence with The Catcher in the Rye (helped immensely of course three years later with William Golding's Lord of the Flies). Cleary's Henry Huggins books are kind of like that for those readers' little brothers in fourth through sixth grade, which is what makes them still so timeless and readable to this day, especially series high point Henry and the Clubhouse which features almost a perfect blend of zany standalone stories but all of them combining into a grand finale at the very end, with a good dose of earned sentimentality too. If you take on these six books, and then the '70s more touchy-feely fellow six-book series of Ramona as a tween, you'll have pretty much read the top twelve books of her career, making the rest only really of worth to diehard completists. They come recommended in this spirit.*Like I suspect is the case with a lot of the nerds here at Goodreads, every year of my childhood I participated in my public library's summer reading program, in which goals at home for books checked off a list was combined with live social events at the library's large back field, and that this combination of indoor and outdoor activities makes up a giant sweet spot of my fond memories of my tween years (whatever ones I can still remember here in my fifties, anyway). I always went for the biggest goal you could get, which was something ridiculous like 30 books in the 15 weeks between Memorial Day and Labor Day; but the only way I could get to that number by the end of the summer was to re-read a certain amount of books I was already familiar with, which is how I ended up re-reading the entire Huggins series every summer, a lot of Judy Blume books every summer, the "Mad Scientist Club" books every summer, etc. I was actually reading them again from cover to cover, so I suppose technically that counts!The 2021 Beverly Cleary Memorial Re-Read: Henry Huggins (1950) Henry and Beezus (1952) Otis Spofford (1953) Henry and Ribsy (1954) Fifteen (1956) Henry and the Paper Route (1957) Henry and the Clubhouse (1962) Ribsy (1964) Ramona and Her Mother (1979) Dear Mr. Henshaw (1983) Ramona Forever (1984) Strider (1991)

This is the fourth book in a series and takes place on the same street as the Ramona Quimby series. You don’t necessarily need to read any of these books in order to have a fun time. In this book, Henry wants a paper route but he’s a little too young to have the job so he has to prove that he is responsible enough for it. We get to follow Henry through this process and it’s both funny and cute. While I prefer the Ramona series, I still enjoyed the fun this book brought me. To be honest, I’ve been feeling a little overwhelmed with the world lately so this was definitely a fun escape for an afternoon.Henry and the Paper Route by Beverly Cleary is the second book I read for the #clearurshit readathon and it fits two prompts - The book that’s been on my shelves the longest and a book featuring an animal.

These are the tales of Henry Huggins, paper boy at the age of 10. Sisters Beezus and Ramona show up quite a bit here too.This book came out in 1957, when I was 8 years old. Within a few years, I can remember reading many stories such as these by beloved author and Oregon native Beverly Cleary. However, I did not get my paper route until I had reached the advanced age of 15!"The Paper Drive" is quite a funny tale of Henry's adventure of collecting old newspapers and magazines for a school paper drive.

I enjoyed the audio version, performed exuberantly by Neil Patrick Harris, whose genius talent brings to life Beverly Cleary's outstanding characters and her understated, entertaining sense of humor. The delightful story was punctuated by a fascinating interview with the author, made some time after her success with the many books she had written. I heartily recommend this adaptation as a great intro to the work of this gifted children's author.

RIP, Beverly Cleary...she really was such a genius children's writer.This entry in the Henry Huggins series was so funny. I loved the kittens. And Ramona is always a high point. I wish I had read all of the Henry books when I was a kid. I think the only reason I didn't was that I was obsessed with Ramona, so I only read those over and over again. I did read a couple of the Henry books, but I still haven't read them all. But I will get there!

Fascinating how Cleary sees what constitutes status for 11-year-olds. Heartwarming book, esp. after reading some Flannery O'Connor stories.

Another wonderful Henry Huggins tale enjoyed by me and my 8 year old grandson. Lots of laughs, excitement and 'hard work'.

Good old Henry Huggins wants a paper route but isn't quite old enough. Instead he ends up with a new kitten, names her Nosy, and thereby upsets good old Ribsy.After another adventure with paper, known as a paper drive, in which Henry's clever advertising method succeeds way beyond his wildest dreams, bad girl Ramona's bad ideas help Henry finally get his route.I will never forget the summer my sons had a paper route. I worked long hours that summer, including weekends. So the boys often spent weekends in the country with their cousins. Meaning I had to get up at dawn and do their route, often accompanied by thunderstorms. Wish I'd known about Henry back then. Me and the boys would have had some good laughs reading it.