Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary Page A

tips on how to write a book. This is important to me. I really want to know so I can get to be a famous author and write books exactly like yours.
    Please send me a list of your books that you wrote, an autographed picture and a bookmark. I need your answer by next Friday. This is urgent!
    Sincerely,
Leigh Botts

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    November 15
    Dear Mr. Henshaw,
    At first I was pretty upset when I didn’t get an answer to my letter in time for my report, but I worked it out OK. I read what it said about you on the back of Ways to Amuse a Dog and wrote real big on every other line so I filled up the paper. On the book it said you lived in Seattle, so I didn’t know you had moved to Alaska although I should have guessed from Moose on Toast .
    When your letter finally came I didn’t want to read it to the class, because I didn’t think Miss Martinez would like silly answers, like your real name is Messing A. Round, and you don’t have kids because you don’t raise goats. She said I had to read it. The class laughed and Miss Martinez smiled, but she didn’t smile when I came to the part about your favorite animal was a purple monster who ate children who sent authors long lists of questions for reports instead of learning to use the library.
    Your writing tips were OK. I could tell you meant what you said. Don’t worry. When I write something, I won’t send it to you. I understand how busy you are with your own books.
    I hid the second page of your letter from Miss Martinez. That list of questions you sent for me to answer really made me mad. Nobody else’s author put in a list of questions to be answered, and I don’t think it’s fair to make me do more work when I already wrote a report.
    Anyway, thank you for answering my questions. Some kids didn’t get any answers at all, which made them mad, and one girl almost cried, she was so afraid she would get a bad grade. One boy got a letter from an author who sounded real excited about getting a letter and wrote such a long answer the boy had to write a long report. He guessed nobody ever wrote to that author before, and he sure wouldn’t again. About ten kids wrote to the same author, who wrote one answer to all of them. Therewas a big argument about who got to keep it until Miss Martinez took the letter to the office and duplicated it.
    About those questions you sent me. I’m not going to answer them, and you can’t make me. You’re not my teacher.
    Yours truly,
Leigh Botts
    P.S. When I asked you what the title of your next book was going to be, you said, Who knows? Did you mean that was the title or you don’t know what the title will be? And do you really write books because you have read every book in the library and because writing beats mowing the lawn or shoveling snow?
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    November 16
    Dear Mr. Henshaw,
    Mom found your letter and your list of questions which I was dumb enough to leave lying around. We had a big argument. She says I have to answer your questions because authors are working people like anyone else, and if you took time to answer my questions, I should answer yours. She says I can’t go through life expecting everyone to do everything for me. She used to say the same thing to Dad when he left his socks on the floor.
    Well, I got to go now. It’s bedtime. Maybe I’ll get around to answering your ten questions, and maybe I won’t. There isn’t any law that says I have to. Maybe I won’t even read any more of your books.
    Disgusted reader,
Leigh Botts
    P.S. If my Dad was here, he would tell you to go climb a tree.
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    November 20
    Dear Mr. Henshaw,
    Mom is nagging me about your dumb old questions. She says if I really want to be an author, I should follow the tips in your letter. I should read, look, listen, think and write . She says the best way she knows for me to get started is to apply the seat