Dear Mr. Henshaw

Leigh doesn’t address his journal entry to Mr. Henshaw. The events of the previous days have left him feeling tired and weighed down by his problems. Someone steals the cheesecake from Leigh’s lunch, and he becomes angry. Leigh is also still struggling with his composition for the Young Writers publication. He thought about titling it Ways to Catch a Lunchbag Thief but worries it is too derivative of Mr. Henshaw’s work.

Leigh’s anger and frustration build, and when he sees another student’s lunch bag, he grabs it and prepares to kick it down the hall, but Mr. Fridley stops him. Leigh can tell Mr. Fridley is serious but he tells him that he doesn’t care if he gets into trouble because he has no friends at school and no one cares for him. Mr. Fridley tells Leigh that he cares about him and encourages him to try smiling at others; he’s not the only student who has problems at home. Leigh thinks about how hard both his parents work and has empathy for them. Mr. Fridley continues, “Turning into a mean-eyed lunch-kicker won’t help anything […] You gotta think positively” (81). However, Leigh isn’t sure how to change his thought pattern.