Henry's antics are even more implausible* then in Blue-Ribbon Henry, which was stretching it ever so slightly. But this is picture book world and so I'm letting that slide. Also, how great is the Man? Gruff man that he is, he has to claim to dislike the stupid cat (in favor of the dog, of course) but really he loves the cat. Only now do I realize that the Man is my father.

*This was not an issue when I was a child. It was totally believable that he cross-country skied, used pine bough poles, and could tie string/fabric.

This is one of the few Henry books that I don't actually remember reading over and over again as a child, which is a bit odd, all things considering. Maybe our library didn't own it...Or maybe because it wasn't my favorite of the series.

One of the things that is great about the Henry books is that, while they are pretty simplistic, the words are not dumbed down. In this one, I spotted "thronged", "wandered", "enormous", and several other decently sized words that some small children might not know. Also, while Henry is cute as well as unbelievably* incredible, Buttons is stupidly adorable, so who's the real winner here?

*This was not an issue when I was a child. It was totally believable that he walked on his hind legs and could unlock cages and was dead loyal to his owners and saved small children.