Andrew Henry's Meadow

This story piqued the interest of my 9-year-old grandson who claimed a disinterest in reading. He could relate to the inventiveness of Andrew Henry as well as the feeling of rejection for his uniqueness. He characterized the book as "hilarious." I used to read this book to my son (now 40 years old) and my 3rd grade students. It has maintained its relevance over the years. I highly recommend.

I remembered this book from childhood, and when I was casting about for a gift for my young niece, I flashed on this. While it's true that this book might be better received by boys, what child can't help but be entranced by Andrew's Rube Goldberg-style houses and inventions? It wasn't until I reread it after buying it that I saw the logical fallacies in the story (for example, what did they eat in the meadow? and, since the whole story takes place in four days...well, let's just say that Andrew Henry is quite the engineer and contractor to build all those houses in such a short time). But that's nitpicking, isn't it? This is a fun story of 'misunderstood' youth and the families that love them. Great fun and highly reccommended. PS> It occurs to me that there's no real synopsis of the book listed here, so I'll describe it in a nutshell. Andrew Henry is a young 'inventor' whose inventions drive his family to distraction. Feeling unloved, he sets out for a place where he can do as he pleases. After he finds the meadow of the title, he builds a house for himself, and is soon joined by several other children. Everyone gets their own house, and there's a happy ending.

Andrew Henrys Medow inspired me to create. He made his own world one that had a little piece in it for everyones love and intrest. As a child this book and its pictures became blueprints in my mind. I think that I learned to appreciate Architecture because of this book. Seems that I'm one of the lucky ones because I have all of the Doris Burns books and treasure them with my sons...hopefully one will become an architect someday and build a great treehouse for his mom.

As children, my brother and I never tired of this book as a bedtime story. The detailed pen-and-ink drawings were enough to lose yourself for hours, but the writing is also magical in its simplicity. Even the secondary characters are given a full life. I have used this book for classroom projects for the past ten years as a third grade teacher. It can be about such heady topics as belonging, self-confidence, independence, acceptance and family love or about seemingly simpler concepts such as architecture, friendship and dreaming. Althougb I have memorized the text, I desperately need my own copy as I gave my only one away to a friend's children years ago, before I realized that it was out-of-print.

This wonderfully illustrated book inspires and rekindles the imagination for anyone. Young Andrew Henry decides to run away from home one day; he takes his carpenter's set travels for a few hours and eventually he rests in a meadow. Andrew builds his house, then as other kids arrive at the meadow, Andrew builds their houses too. Andrew designs/builds each house for the kids to suit their hobbies. A bridge house with paddle wheels and sail boats, a tree-house with bird cages, anything you could imagine - he builds it. I remember having this book read to me when I was only 4 (27 years ago), reading it myself when I was 6 and reading it to cousins, nieces, nephews over the years. The book is out of print now (I gave my last copy away over 10 years ago). If you ever find it - it's a keeper! As a grown-up kid you could almost think the message may be "No matter how different we all are, we can all live together".