The world of Henry Huggins, famous hero of Mrs. Cleary's earlier best-sell- ing story, centers around Klickitat Street and the Glenwood School. It is peopled with his dog Ribsy, other boys, and — unavoidably — girls. Bee- zus, christened Beatrice but renamed by her little sister Ramona, is the girl that Henry finds least obnoxious. She is, he has to admit, a sensible girl. He even lets her come along with him occasionally, although this means that Ramona has to come too.

Ramona is Henry's chief cross. She pretends she is a toy and has to be wound up before she will budge. She can't chew bubble gum without get- ting it in her hair. Henry thinks she is dumb — and yet he sometimes wonders. How would they ever have escaped from old Mrs. Wisser if Ramona hadn't thrust a slimy garden slug at her? How would they have got near the bicycle auction if Ramona hadn't scattered the crowd by making a singularly devastating announcement?

But Henry, if driven to it, can solve his own problems. When he wins fifty dollars' worth of Beauty Shoppe permanent waves, facials, and false eye- lashes at the opening of the Colossal Market, he silences the jeers of the other boys by accepting their challenge to eat a canful of Woofies Dog Food. Over all obstacles, he obtains the shiny red bicycle of his desire and pedals out of our sight, at the end of this delectable book, with his spokes twinkling in the sunshine and the snap-on tail of his coonskin cap fluttering in the breeze.