Paulsen uses a device often found in nineteenth-century novels, a subheading for each chapter that cryptically and enticingly previews the action to come. Most of the subheadings are laconic and ironic rather than straightforward. Chapter 6's subhead reads, "Wherein I learn more physics, involving parabolic trajectories, and see the worth of literature." What happens is that Harris and Me, inspired by a Tarzan of the Apes comic book, find a rope and go swinging from the peak of the barn into disaster.

Harris and Me is essentially a collection of distinct vignettes rather than a connected narrative of plot. Each chapter contains its own story with a beginning, middle, and end: playing war by attacking the pigs, hooking up the washer motor to a bike, hunting field mice with Buzzer. Thus the book invites leisurely reading chapter by chapter and leisurely re-reading of favorite episodes.

Paulsen...