Monday, June 2, 2008

Henry and the Paper Route (Henry Huggins)

Product Description

Henry Huggins can't wait until he turns eleven years old, so he can have a paper route like his friend Scooter McCarthy. Henry wants to prove to the route manager that he is responsible enough to handle the job right now. First he thinks of giving away free kittens with newspaper subscriptions, and then his advertising scheme helps his class win the newspaper drive. But he still doesn't have a paper route. Will Ramona Quimby, making a real pest of herself, help Henry get the job he wants so much?



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Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #94839 in Books
Published on: 1990-09-01
Released on: 1990-09-02
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
208 pages

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Editorial Reviews
From AudioFile
Beverly Cleary's clever story about Henry, a preteen boy learning to tackle responsibility, is more humorous as told by Neil Patrick Harris. He does an excellent job portraying the different characters, ranging from an obnoxious 4-year-old to an older boy with a lisp and a stern paper route manager. Cleary's story puts Henry in several entertaining predicaments, all of which remain truthful over the decades since its first publication. Listeners will find themselves smiling and laughing out loud, thanks to Harris's smooth delivery. Each character is brought to life as Harris imparts Mr. Huggins's voice, Ramona's emotions, and Henry's demeanor. M.J.R. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

--Kirkus Reviews
"Henry goes on being funny with a resemblance to everyone's younger brother. A chuckle a page!"

--The New York Times
"When Ramona takes over, she is as wild funny as ever."


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Customer Reviews
Its a Pretty Good Book
This book is about Henry who wants to get a job delivering papers. A funny part of the book is when is goes to apply for the paper route. On the way, he stops at a rummage sale where there is a box with four kittens for sale for 5 cents each. He buys them all and tries to hide them in his shirt when he applies for the paper route. When he knocks on the door of the man who hires people for the job, a dog is at the door. The dog growls at Henry and one of the kittens pops out of his shirt. He pushes the kitten down, and it scratches him. The whole thing is a fiasco and he is told to come back in a year or two when he is older. It you want to know more about other funny things that happen to Henry or if he gets the paper route, I recommend you read this book.

Timelessly Entertaining!
As with the previous books, Henry and the Paper Route is written in chapter book style where each chapter is almost a short story in-and-of-itself and which all wind their way toward the ultimate goal (each book Henry has that ONE thing he's got to get or do) which makes for interesting reading, wondering how each part will ultimately work out with the end goal. It's clear from the title that this volume in the Henry Huggins series is all about Henry and his desire to get a paper route all his own and as the chapters go on, we see how he goes about proving he's ready to do that! With this book we also get to read more about Beezus and Ramona, Scooter, Ribsy and more!

Henry and the Paper Route is six chapters of boyishly good adventure geared toward Henry obtaining the paper route of his dreams! We start out with Henry in hot water over bringing home four kittens...this chapter is all about him making an interesting first impression with Mr. Capper (the newspaper guy). The second chapter is about his tireless search to find good homes for those kittens. Chapter three Henry engineers a clever plan to help his class get ahead in the school paper drive and in chapter four we find out if his plan was successful or not! Chapter five Henry meets Murph, boy genius and finds that Murph has transferred into the paper route he's had his eye on! Oh, no...in chapter six will Henry finally get that route or is he destined to only fill in and help Scooter out? Your young reader will love finding out!

I give this book five stars...though the Henry Huggins series was written in the 1940's and 50's and have a bit of a Leave It to Beaver feel with regards to the traditional family roles and quaint feel of the daily life of the kids in them...they are also rather timeless. Putting aside the money issues (yea, everything cost WAY less in these books than they do today), Henry Huggins is a clean cut typical boy looking for a bit of fun...but he's also honest, hard working, and clever in thinking of ways to get what he wants (the advertising thing for the paper drive for example)...and he's always respectful even when he's trying to scheme to get what he wants! Henry and the Paper Route (and all the other books in this series) are well worth reading...these are kids classics for a reason, because they are timelessly entertaining!


Monkey Business
I am 8 years old. I like all of the Beverly Cleary books. This book is funny. I especially liked the part when Ramona pinned a jump rope to her overalls and pretended she was a monkey. She went to the store with her family, and some people joked around and thought she was a new species for sale. Then she thought they were not joking and she ran away from the store. Ramona is four in this book, and she is my favorite character in the Beverly Cleary books.

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