craigmcn

So I mentioned that my sister sent me some books for Christmas; one of which was Henry and Ribsy. Since I like to read a little before bed, I decided to read one chapter each night (I think there’s only 5 or 6 chapters). The most recent chapter I read was “Henry and the Garbage”, and held the promise of some fun dog- and garbage-related hijinks. What I got was a lame-ass story about a lazy-ass kid. There’s a spoiler coming, but since you’re all mostly more than 9 years old, I’m sure it’ll be okay.

Henry starts taking out the garbage to get an increase in his allowance. When the garbageman comes to take the garbage, Ribsy (the dog) attacks the garbageman, thinking the garbageman is stealing Henry’s garbage. Instead of resolving the problem, Henry just ignores it. He negotiates helping his dad groom the lawn, and makes his mom take out the garbage. That way the garbage no longer belongs to Henry and Ribsy won’t care any more. I was sure that Henry (or his parents) would devise a clever plan to have Henry give the garbage to the garbageman, showing Ribsy that it was okay for the garbageman to take it. But no, he gets to work on the lawn and that’s it. I was literally shaking the book to see if more of the story fell out. I was so disappointed.