Even though I have clear memories of reading Dear Mr. Henshaw, I had never read Strider. Now that I'm reading all these series books with Isabelle, I have a kind of compulsion for finishing series that are the least bit interesting to me. As it turned out, Strider was published in 1991 - when I was about the same age as Leigh in the story! I'm kind of bummed now that I didn't read it when it first came out, but I don't even remember hearing about it at the time.
I read this book right on the heels of Dear Mr. Henshaw, but it still took me a few chapters to get into it.
If Dear Mr. Henshaw was at times wistful and sad, with Leigh feeling lonely and despairing, then this book is - for a while anyway - downright depressing. It's sad that Leigh and his father don't have a good relationship, especially since there's a sense that they did before the divorce, even if his dad was on the road a lot. I know it's the last thing that children of divorce of supposed to do, but there was a part of me that actually hoped Leigh's parents would get back together! Well, of course, that's not the sort of book that Beverly Cleary would write, and the story definitely picked up and ended on a very happy, satisfying note.
Even though Leigh has problems, he's actually very well-adjusted. He's self-aware enough to write about his feelings in a diary, and he has a healthy, balanced perspective on life. The reading level is appropriate for upper elementary school readers, but I think middle school students might get more out of it.
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