31 Days of Book Detectives ~ Day 12: Andrew Henry’s Meadow

[Click here to read other posts in the series.]

Andrew Henry’s Meadow is a picture book I would have loved as a kid, and it was published in 1965, almost a decade before I was born! I had a slight obsession with books about kids who run away, and I would have pored over the illustrations of each unique house Andrew Henry created for the other kids (a tree house for the bird-enthusiast, a bridge house for the fisherman, a dugout house for the boy who had underground pets, a castle for the girl who loved to dress up…). The black and white illustrations are charming.

Crime Scene [Setting]

Where?

Town of Stubbsville (Small Town, USA)

Andrew Henry’s home (All-American)

The countryside—pasture, hill, swamp, deep woods

A meadow—delightful, with a stream wandering through it, a tall fir tree on one side

When?

One spring

Sometime around 1965?

The children were gone for four long days and four very long nights

Suspects [Characters]

Who?

Andrew Henry—boy, middle child, liked to build things, creative

Thatcher Family:

Mrs. Thatcher—mother, usually busy in kitchen

Mr. Thatcher—tired when he came home from work, liked to read the paper and have things quiet

Marian and Martha—older sisters, liked to sew or fix their hair

Robert and Ronald—younger brothers, liked to play with toy cars and coloring books

Eight other kids from town who had various hobbies and activities and parents who didn’t appreciate them

Sam—dog who loved Andrew Henry and was lonesome without him