History Literature / HenryHuggins

* UnsuccessfulPetAdoption: When Henry adopts two guppies, they reproduce like crazy and he feels he has to sell them all because guppies give live birth and he can't tell which ones might be pregnant.

* TheComplianceGame: Henry and his friend are assigned to look for bugs for biology class. They get the little neighbour boy to help by saying, "Let's pretend we're scientists looking for specimens".

* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Beezus and Mary Jane. The latter is dainty, wears dresses and dislikes getting herself dirty. The former is very sensible, wears shirt and jeans, and doesn't mind playing in the dirt with the boys. Naturally, Henry is closer to Beezus than he is to Mary Jane.

* TroublesomePet: RRibsy is often considered a nuisance by the neighbors and causes all sorts of trouble for Henry by chasing his neighbor's cat, ruining their flowerbeds, stealing food and newspapers, etc. This becomes a major plot point in ''Henry and Ribsy'', where Mr. Huggins's requirement for allowing Henry to join his fishing trip is to keep Ribsy out of trouble for two weeks.

* NotWhatItLooksLike: In ''Henry and Ribsy'', Ramona steals Ribsy's bone and shoves it in her lunchbox as revenge for him eating her ice cream cone, then gets upset when she hears Beezus and Henry talking about the P.T.A. and thinks it's some food she's not allowed to have. She runs up the jungle gym, crying because she wants P.T.A., and Ribsy follows her, wanting his bone back. Several of the P.T.A. mothers come outside and immediately assume Ribsy is a mean dog who has chased Ramona up the jungle gym and trapped her there. They almost call the pound to take Ribsy away until Miss Mullen, the school principal, hears Henry out and gives him a chance to explain that Ribsy isn't trying to bite Ramona and he just wants his bone.

* BreakTheHaughty: In ''Henry and Ribsy'', Scooter and the Robert make fun of Henry after his parents give him a TraumaticHaircut. Henry's mother then tells the other mothers about the sale on clippers, which leads to ''all'' the boys getting similar terrible hairstyles.

* NotLikeOtherGirls: Beezus (and later Ramona) are tomboys who can hang out with the boys and aren't focused on girly things. Naturally, this trope hasn't aged all that well.

* LetHimChoose: When Ribsy's original owner shows up and wants his dog back, they decide to let Ribsy choose. He goes with Henry, of course.

* CoversAlwaysLie: [[https://www.etsy.com/listing/784952705/henry-huggins-henry-and-beezus-henry-and Some later reprints]] depict the wrong breed of dog for Ribsy on the cover.

* ''Henry and the Clubhouse'' (1962) -- Henry and his two friends Robert and Murphy wants to build their own clubhouse, which they eventually decide to be a "boys only" club. But trouble soon hits their new club when [[BrattyHalfPint Ramona Quimby]] decides that she wants to be a part of this whole affair.

* BrattyHalfPint: Ramona, Beezus' bratty younger sister who likes to follow Henry and Beezus around, then cause a lot of scene by screaming loudly and throwing a tantrum when she doesn't get what she wants.

* MyNewGiftIsLame: In the second book, Henry wins a lottery during the opening of a new mall and is horrified to discover that his prize is a set of beauty coupons. Subverted when Beezus offers to buy one of his coupons. Henry's mothers and her friends do the same, which Henry the money he needs to buy his bike. The other boys who initially laughed at his winnings did a 180 and wished that they had won it instead.

* NotWhatItLooksLike: In ''Henry and Ribsy'', Ramona steals Ribsy's bone and shoves it in her lunchbox as revenge for him eating her ice cream cone, then gets upset when she hears Beezus and Henry talking about the P.T.A. and thinks it's some food she's not allowed to have. She runs up the jungle gym, crying because she wants P.T.A., and Ribsy follows her, wanting his bone back. Several of the P.T.A. mothers come outside and immediately assume Ribsy is a mean dog who has chased Ramona up the jungle gym and trapped her there. They almost call the pound to take Ribsy away until Miss Mullen, the school principal, hears Henry out and gives him a chance to explain that Ribsy didn't scare Ramona and he just wants his bone.

* NotWhatItLooksLike: In ''Henry and Ribsy'', Ramona steals Ribsy's bone and shoves it in her lunchbox as revenge for him eating her ice cream cone, then gets upset when she hears Beezus and Henry talking about the P.T.A. and thinks it's some food she's not allowed to have. She runs up the jungle gym, crying because she wants P.T.A., and Ribsy follows her, wanting his bone back. Several of the P.T.A. mothers come outside and immediately assume Ribsy is a mean dog who has chased Ramona up the jungle gym and trapped her there. They almost call the pound to take Ribsy away until Miss Mullen, the school principal, hears Henry out and gives him a chance to explain that Ribsy didn't scare Ramona and he just wants his bone back.

* NotWhatItLooksLike: In ''Henry and Ribsy'', Ramona steals Ribsy's bone as revenge for him eating her ice cream cone, then gets upset when she hears Beezus and Henry talking about the P.T.A. and thinks it's some food she's not allowed to have. She runs up the jungle gym crying that she wants P.T.A. and Ribsy follows her. Several of the P.T.A. mothers come outside and immediately assume Ribsy is a mean dog who has chased Ramona up the jungle gym and trapped her there.

* CensorshipBySpelling: Inverted in ''Henry and Ribsy''. Henry has no idea what Ramona means when she hears everyone talking about "PTA" and insists that she wants some. Beezus figures out that Ramona thinks that they're spelling out something tasty, like "c-o-o-k-i-e-s" or "c-a-n-d-y". This leads to them having to buy a snack for Ramona and telling her that it's PTA.

* TraumaticHaircut: Henry's parents give him one in ''Henry and Ribsy'' while trying on hair clippers his mother got on sale.

* NotWhatItLooksLike: In ''Henry and Ribsy'', Ramona steals Ribsy's bone as revenge for him eating her ice cream cone, then gets upset when she hears Beezus and Henry talking about the P.T.A. and thinks it's some food she's not allowed to have. She runs up the jungle gym crying that she wants P.T.A. and Ribsy follows her. Several of the P.T.A. mothers come outside, and to them, it looks like Ribsy is a mean dog who has chased Ramona up the jungle gym and trapped her there.