In the story there is a boy named Leigh Botts who writes to his favorite author, Boyd Henshaw. On May 12th he starts to write letters every week to him. Leigh admires Mr. Henshaw because he starts to dress like him and things. He has been admiring him every since he was in 2nd grade. Leigh was lonely because his father was not there with him. He is now in the 6th grade and is the new student in his school. Everyday there's a mysterious person who takes something from his lunchbag.
His teacher assigns the class a letter writing project and of course Leigh chooses Mr. Henshaw.
His dad is a cross country trucker and he hardly gets to see him. When Leigh calls his dad, his dad tells him that he is on his way to a date with a woman and her son. Leigh's dad told Leigh he would call him later. Leigh was jealous because his dad does not spend time with him and his mom and they do not go out to get pizza together. Then Leigh started to wonder if his dad would marry the pizza boy's mom.
He asked his mom would his dad ever get married again and would they ever get back together. His mom replied, saying no they would not get married again, because his father was childish and would not ever grow up. Leigh got so angry with his mom because she was talking about his dad. He he went to his room and slammed the door.
