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Growing Up

 For a long time, I've wanted to write about a kind of "B Team" Beverly Cleary book--"Strider"--and to give my enthusiastic recommendation.

"Strider" is a journey story. Our hero, Leigh Botts, is a few years older than he was in "Dear Mr. Henshaw." He meets an abandoned dog--"Strider"--and begins running on the beach. This leads to the beginnings of a track career, early attempts at dating, and a renewed interest in writing. That's all.

Once again, Cleary dazzles just by paying close attention to ordinary life. Leigh is not a superhero. His problems couldn't be more average. He feels irritated when his sloppy dad probes him for information on his mother; he, Leigh, knows and resents that he is being used as a kind of "dating spy." Cleary touches on class: Leigh meets a much wealthier kid and slowly starts to discover that the kid deals with loneliness in his own way. (Everyone has an inner mess, or several messes, to cope with.) Also, Cleary describes the special hell of working with an uninspired English teacher; Leigh's depressed homeroom "superior" thinks that her job is just to discourage kids from writing "gonna," in all contexts, and we can imagine/recall what this sad experience is like.

Quiet, compelling, plausible -- a nice follow-up to "Henshaw." The Paul Zelinsky drawings are also a treat.



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