Below is the complete list of Beverly Cleary’s Leigh Botts books in order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Leigh Botts Books
About Leigh Botts
Beverly Cleary’s Leigh Botts series consists of two closely connected children’s novels, Dear Mr. Henshaw and Strider, following the same boy through family disruption, loneliness, changing friendships, and the gradual discovery that writing can help him understand experiences he cannot otherwise control. More introspective than Cleary’s Ramona or Henry Huggins books, the Leigh Botts stories retain her characteristic attention to ordinary childhood while dealing openly with divorce, an absent parent, financial strain, bullying, and the complicated loyalties children carry toward adults who have disappointed them.
Dear Mr. Henshaw introduces Leigh through letters he writes to children’s author Boyd Henshaw. Leigh first contacts the writer as a school assignment after reading one of his books, and the correspondence continues over several years. When Mr. Henshaw sends questions back, Leigh initially resents having to answer them, but the exercise gradually becomes a way for him to describe his own life.
His parents are divorced, and Leigh lives with his mother while his father works as a long-distance truck driver. Leigh misses him intensely despite recognizing that his father is unreliable about telephone calls and promises. His feelings are complicated further by the knowledge that his father’s truck and beloved dog, Bandit, occupy much of the life from which Leigh now feels excluded.
School provides little escape. Someone repeatedly steals the best food from Leigh’s lunch, and he struggles with loneliness and the feeling that other children have easier, more settled lives. Cleary turns these apparently modest problems into a convincing portrait of a child trying to make sense of anger he does not always feel entitled to express.
The novel’s form is central to that development. Leigh’s letters gradually give way to diary entries, and writing shifts from an obligation imposed by adults into something personally useful. His language becomes more confident as he becomes better able to observe himself and other people. The book never suggests that writing magically fixes his family, but it gives Leigh a way to organize feelings that once seemed shapeless.
Strider returns to Leigh several years later. He is older, entering high school, and more settled in some respects, but family and friendship remain complicated. His life changes when he and his friend Barry discover an abandoned dog on the beach. They name him Strider and initially attempt to share responsibility for him, an arrangement that soon reveals how differently the boys understand ownership, loyalty, and commitment.
Strider becomes especially important to Leigh. Caring for the dog gives him companionship and encourages his growing interest in running, while also forcing him to negotiate practical questions involving Barry, his mother, and the limits of what he can control. At the same time, Leigh begins developing new relationships, including his friendship with Geneva, and confronts the changing social world that comes with adolescence.
The sequel retains the diary form that became important in Dear Mr. Henshaw, allowing readers to encounter Leigh directly through his observations. He is more mature but still unmistakably the same character: thoughtful, sometimes resentful, sensitive to rejection, and gradually learning that understanding another person does not require excusing every hurt they cause.
Together, the Leigh Botts books form one of Cleary’s quieter character studies. There are no extraordinary adventures and no large continuing mystery. Their continuity comes from watching one boy grow through experiences that many children recognize but may find difficult to articulate. Leigh does not solve the problems created by divorce or loneliness; he learns instead to live with greater confidence inside a family and world that remain imperfect.