HENRY HIKES TO FITCHBURG
By D.B. Johnson
Houghton Mifflin, 2000
Category: Picture book
Awards: Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, 2000
There is so much goodness wrapped up in my copy of HENRY HIKES TO FITCHBURG.
Firstly, it is a marvelous book. Daniel Pinkwater called it, “A masterpiece … the finest illustrations I’ve seen in years and years”. I agree on both counts.
Equally important to me is the fact that our copy of HENRY HIKES TO FITCHBURG was a gift from dear friends. Sam and Ben were two years old when it arrived in the mail (I just peeked in on them, sleeping in the wee hours, and they are so long and lanky that I can hardly believe they were once two year-olds) and we were living within walking distance of Fitchburg. Our friends Hans, Carolyn and Jordan wrote inside the book: “May you enjoy many hikes!”
About a year later, D. B. Johnson visited our local library. I brought the boys, then three, and they loved watching D.B. draw Henry on his big, white artpad. Ben was particularly mesmerized … and he has not stopped drawing since. D. B. wrote in the book, just over the first inscription: “Enjoy the blackberries!”
On Saturday the boys and I got to meet D.B. Johnson again at the Fish Tales, Tugs & Sails festival in New London, Connecticut. This time I was a published author, too, and appeared alongside D. B. and his wife, author Linda Michelin. D.B. and Linda were kind and encouraging. They came to my presentation, smiled all the way through, and then bought a copy of my book. In a stunning example of above and beyond, these two generous people returned to the author tent late in the day, at the time allotted for D.B.’s presentation, to tell me they had read and enjoyed the first two chapters of TRACKING TRASH.
And so you will surely understand how I feel about my beautiful copy of HENRY HIKES TO FITCHBURG. This book has grown layers of meaning over the years; when I hold it I want to sing about friendship and creativity and kindnesses. I don’t, of course (I cannot sing a whit!), but I think about all of these things before I open the cover and read:
“One summer day, Henry and his friend decided to go to Fitchburg to see the country.”
Oh, the journey!