The Henry Huggins Audio Collection

We first heard one of these books when we got it at the library and instantly fell in love with how Neil Patrick Harris read it. I found this collection for my daughter for Christmas to go with her new Kindle. She has listened to this book numerous times already. Good thing it is digital because she literally would have worn certain parts out because she loves certain characters so much. I highly recommend this collection to anyone young and old!!!

So I had originally rated this book 3 stars but in light of my daughters obsession with listening to this book over and over and over and over and over and over....(ad nauseum) I felt I needed to bump up the rating to 4 stars. I am not exaggerating when I say that she has been listening to this book every night as she goes to sleep for over a month. She just keeps listening to it again and again. From my viewpoint, I felt that this book was good but not in the same league as Ms. Cleary's "Romana Quimby series". These, I believe, are Ms Cleary's first attempts at writing, at least they are her first published attempts. They were written back in like the early 1950's, and were written in "modern Portland, OR". What this means is that they are set in early 1950's Portland OR, and as such represent the sensibilities and thought patterns of that time. The result is that the stories are a bit dated, and for today's adult audience a little silly. My daughter on the other hand loves this, she keeps asking me to explain some of the (now defunct and dead) aspects of that society...what she calls "the olden times"...for example I found myself explaining what a phone booth was.....
The writing and storytelling in this series is not as polished or as sharp as Ms Cleary's later works but it is still good. Mr. Harris' performance on the other hand is actually quite entertaining and was one of my favorite parts of listening to this book. I don't think many adults will love this book, it is simply too dated. But that being said, I certainly did not mind listening to it in the car with my daughter (at least the first time) and my daughter LOVES it, so in the end I give it my recommendation.

This was a fun book for the kids and the parents for long car ride trips when you need a change of pace from the video games and movies.