作者很出名很高產(chǎn)，但這本書最著名，也被認(rèn)為是永不過時的紐伯瑞之一。沒有太多的歷史背景，都是社會問題，比如離異的父母（長不大的父親，這一點真是，就是我們現(xiàn)在說的云配偶吧），插班生的融入，霸凌或者友善的人。
沒有happy ending，但也還好，這是樸素寫作的起點，那種刻意團圓美滿的兒童文學(xué)，做不到這種克制和冷靜。

照例轉(zhuǎn)發(fā)一個我喜歡的亞馬遜評論，來自一位作家，
Why I Think Boys May Enjoy This

I decided to review this book as the first one on my Books for Boys blog for a very personal reason: this is the book I recall that both got me in love with reading and also made me want to be a writer. In preparation for this review, I reread the book to see how different it is with 35 year old eyes instead of 8 year old eyes and this is what I learned:

I am still Leigh Botts, but grown up. In one of the first letters, Leigh wrote “when I grow up I want to be a famous book writer with a beard like you.” And that’s what I became! Also, I remembered a major reason why I felt this story connected with me as a youth. Leigh’s experience with a hard-working single mother and an often absentee (but likable) father mirrored my childhood exactly. Cleary handles this situation that has become more and more common in complex family structures and does such an amazing job of filtering it through the eyes of a middle school boy.

I also think that the first-person perspective and epistolary (meaning, a series of letters presented as a story) makes the material extremely accessible to any young reader. Further, it handles very challenging pre-teen situations such as divorce, being a new kid at school, & being bullied (his special lunch foods being stolen repeatedly) with a finesse that makes you feel like it actually was written by a sixth grade boy. She even does a great job of demonstrating some of the angsty rage that ebbs and flows in such a person throughout the book.

Content/Appropriateness

This book is more than appropriate for anyone even younger than middle school. Since it is written in first-person from Leigh’s perspective, the language selection and sentence complexity are simplified as well. This adds to both the realism of the book and the ease of accessibility.

Obviously, as is well known with an author like Beverly Cleary, there is no age inappropriate content to scare away parents that might be concerned about such things. The most difficult emotional material stems around the divorce and broken promises by Leigh’s dad, but you can tell by the end of the book that Leigh is well on his way to accepting the positive aspects of his father along with understanding his shortcomings.

Rating

5/5 Giant Cartoon Mallets from Toonopolis, The Blog's Books for Boys review.