Henry and the Clubhouse

Beverly Cleary's Henry and the Paper Route follows Henry Huggins, a young boy on Klickitat Street, as he navigates the responsibilities of his new paper route delivering the Journal, builds a clubhouse with his friends, and contends with Ramona Quimby, a persistent five-year-old neighbor.

One Saturday afternoon, Henry's neighbor Mr. Grumbie invites him to ride to the dump in an old bathtub strapped to a trailer. Henry climbs in and waves at passersby, pretending to be the president in a parade, until a Journal truck passes and he remembers his 43 papers. Mr. Grumbie cannot turn back, so Henry takes a bus home while Ribsy, his dog, rides in Mr. Grumbie's car. Henry uses his only dime to call his mother and ask her to find someone to fold his papers, but no one is available. When Henry arrives, he finds his mother delivering his papers from the family car. That evening, his father, Mr. Huggins, sternly warns Henry that the paper route is his responsibility alone. If he cannot manage it, he will have to give it up. Henry resolves to stay out of trouble.

Henry soon acquires free lumber from a neighbor tearing down his garage and recruits his friends Robert and Murph to build a clubhouse. They agree on two rules: no girls allowed, and they will eventually sleep in the clubhouse in sleeping bags. His father warns that if the clubhouse interferes with the route, Henry must give up one or the other.

Meanwhile, Mr. Capper, the district manager for the Journal, expects carriers to sell subscriptions, and Henry has not sold one. When a house on his route is sold, Mr. Capper tells him to approach the new owners. Henry's first attempt fails spectacularly: Ribsy and the new owner's Dalmatian, Ranger, get into a vicious dogfight, and Ramona marches up to the neighbor reciting a Smokey Bear catchphrase she repeats to everyone. Henry leaves without making his pitch. On a return visit, Ranger chases Henry on his bicycle. After that, Henry must tiptoe through the block to deliver papers without disturbing the dog.

On Halloween, Henry goes trick-or-treating with Murph in costume. At one house, a customer gives him a large stuffed owl for the clubhouse. When they visit the new neighbor's house, Ranger spots the owl's outstretched wings and glittering eyes, panics, and hides under a chair. The neighbor, Mrs. Peabody, recognizes Henry despite his disguise because of Ribsy's distinctive spots. Remembering that she mentioned being interested in pets, Henry uses the Journal's pet column as a selling point. Mrs. Peabody reveals she has been waiting for him to sell her a subscription so he could get credit. Henry is elated. She calls him "Harry," but Henry does not correct her because she is such a pleasant customer.

Henry's next challenge is collecting payments. Mrs. Peabody is the ideal customer, with exact change and cookies ready, though she calls him "Harry Higgins." Mrs. Kelly is the most difficult, never home or never with money. On his third visit, Mrs. Kelly asks Henry to watch her children while she searches for her purse. Ramona, who is playing at the house, climbs on a chair and lifts the washing machine lid between cycles. Dirty water sprays out in a powerful jet, drenching Henry and soaking the kitchen. He flees in the chaos without collecting, but marches back when he realizes his mistake.

The boys finish the clubhouse and adopt a nonsense chant as their secret password. Beezus (Beatrice) Quimby, Ramona's older sister, offers to help with the clubhouse, but Murph refuses. Mysterious pranks soon appear inside, including a sign reading "Down with boys!" The boys suspect Beezus and buy a padlock. One cold November afternoon, Ramona locks Henry inside the clubhouse by snapping the padlock shut. Trapped and desperate to deliver his papers, Henry tries everything to escape. Finally, he recites the secret chant. Ramona is captivated and begs him to repeat it. Henry bargains: He will say it again if she unlocks the door. She finds the key but cannot turn it, so Henry asks her to fetch Beezus, promising to teach both girls the secret words. Beezus will free Henry only if he teaches her the password first. He complies, and she unlocks the door. The chant soon spreads through the entire school.

Desperate for a solution to Ramona, Henry notices she never misses the Sheriff Bud television program, a children's show whose host reads viewer mail and pretends to see his audience through the screen. Henry writes a letter asking Sheriff Bud to tell Ramona to stop pestering him on his route. Days later, at the Quimbys' house, Sheriff Bud points at the camera and says, "Ramona Geraldine Quimby, I see you out there." He tells Ramona it will make him very happy if she stops pestering Henry. Ramona whispers a promise. Mrs. Quimby, Ramona and Beezus's mother, snaps off the television, indignant about a commercial the host works in afterward. Ramona, awed, asks if Henry really knows Sheriff Bud.

Henry's plan backfires. Because he is a friend of Sheriff Bud, Ramona now idolizes Henry and follows him everywhere, behaving perfectly so he has no grounds to complain. Mrs. Quimby bans the program, leaving Ramona free to shadow Henry instead. For Christmas, Ramona receives a cloth Journal bag her mother sewed, with "Read the Journal" embroidered in red yarn. She fills it with old newspapers and a teddy bear. The other carriers laugh, and Henry is deeply embarrassed.

The day after Christmas, heavy snow blankets the city. Henry delivers papers on foot with his Journal bag over his shoulders, and Ramona follows 10 feet behind in her snowsuit and miniature carrier bag. When the load grows too heavy in the drifts, Henry asks Beezus, who has come to retrieve Ramona, to fetch his sled. At Mrs. Peabody's house, she greets Henry as "Harry Higgins." Ramona shouts, "His name isn't Harry Higgins! His name is Henry Huggins!" Mrs. Peabody apologizes for the months-long mistake. Henry feels almost kindly toward Ramona. When Ramona begins to cry from exhaustion and cold, Henry feels conflicted: He remembers all the trouble she has caused but cannot help feeling sorry for her. He tells her to get on the sled and pulls her home.

A few days later, Mr. Capper reads Henry a letter to the editor from Mrs. Peabody praising him as a prompt, courteous carrier who gave a tired little girl a ride home on his sled. She calls him "a fine young citizen." The other carriers look at Henry with new respect. Henry realizes that without Ramona correcting Mrs. Peabody, the letter would have praised "Harry Higgins," and no one would have connected it to him.

That evening, Henry shows the letter to his father. Mr. Huggins declares he is proud of Henry and admits he once doubted Henry could handle both the route and the clubhouse. He hands Henry five dollars to complete his savings for the sleeping bag. Henry has the sleeping bag, his father's pride, and Mr. Capper's respect. As he puts on his coat, he looks at his name in print, thinks warmly of Mrs. Peabody, and cannot help also thinking, "Good old Ramona."