Harriet the Spy
by Louise Fitzhugh
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Book Reviews of Harriet the Spy
Book Review: Harriet and the Night-Time Sky
Summary: 5 Stars
When I was ten years old, my teacher was Mrs Stanley. Mrs Stanley (like all great teachers) refused to teach us what she was told to teach us. Instead she taught us what she felt we ought to know. One of the things she felt we ought to know was "Harriet the Spy."
Harriet the Spy is Harriet M. Welsh, a little girl who keeps a notebook in which she writes thoughts and observations about her friends and the people around her. She also has a spy route made up of six or seven houses she passes on the way to and from school each day. She writes about the houses on her spy route in the notebook each day also.
As a kid, you can understand the desire to peer in windows and you can share Harriet's frustration with grown-ups, what they say, what they don't say, all that. As a kid, you share the sense of isolation visited upon Harriet when her notebook falls out of her bag and is read by all the people in her class. You also share the good times and the laughs, of which there are many, with her. When you are a kid, you read "Harriet the Spy" and it's the story of a little girl whose world falls apart for a little while and then appears to be on the mend.
Years later, I read the book again (sort of glimpsed through half-closed eyes, thinking: this will not be as good as I remembered). You know what? It is every bit as good reading the book as a (so-called) adult as it was reading the book as a kid. Since then I get through "Harriet the Spy" at least once a year. It has become a kind of tradition with me. My little girl is even named after her.
"Harriet the Spy" is a golden classic. There are not many books like this. The five star rule goes out of the window. Other books you can measure with stars. Harriet the Spy is like the night-time sky. There are too many stars to count.
Book Review: Dated Yet Timely
Summary: 5 Stars
Harriet The Spy was first published in 1964. I loved it when I first read it as a child a few years later, and have always remembered it fondly. Harriet M. Welsch lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. She leads a pampered life with parents who love her but don't spend much time with her. Her primary caregiver is her nurse, Ole Golly, who has encouraged her to write down her thoughts and observations in notebooks which will provide fodder for a writing career. Every afternoon Harriet spies on neighbors and observes their foibles. Harriet is absolutely honest when she makes a note, and this gets her into trouble when her classmates discover and read her notebook.
Harriet The Spy is about growing away from childhood things. She loses Ole Golly and has to depend on herself for the first time. She has to recognize that even though honesty is essential, sometimes you have to lie, too. By the end of the book Harriet is still 11 years old, but the reader will have a strong idea of the kind of honest, admirable woman she will become.
Harriet's world seemed strange to me when I first read it, and I suspect many of her other readers and admirers have also found it odd: large private houses and apartments staffed with servants, exclusive private schools, elegant parents who are part of High Society. But even if you don't live in a brownstone on the Upper East Side you'll still find a lot of familiar things in Harriet The Spy: growing up, loneliness, alienation, friendships made and unmade, and hardest of all, learning to accept others' differences.
Book Review: "Harriet the Spy" is an adolscent must read!
Summary: 5 Stars
Harriet M. Welsch, current spy and future world-famous author, is in trouble. Her secret spy notebook has been read by her classmates and now they all hate her, even her best friends, Sport and Janie. Her beloved nanny, Ole Golly, has moved away. Harriet is alone. Not even her daily spy route can help her to escape the reality of the situation because she has been caught--the worst thing that can ever happen to a spy. What is she going to do?Before, life was good for Harriet. She ate a tomato sandwich every day for lunch. Ole Golly was there to talk to and to freely share advice. She played Town with Sport and helped Janie with her bizarre science experiements. Even awful Marion Hawthorne and her sidekick, Beth Ellen Hansen, were managable. But as soon as her notebook got found and read by her classmates, Harriet's world was turned upside-down. "They are out to get me," Harriet wrote in her notebook. "The whole room is filled with mean eyes. I won't get through the day. I might throw up my tomato sandwich. ...They may think I am a weakling but a spy is trained for this kind of fight. I am ready for them."
And so Harriet M. Welsch, undefeatable spy, sets out to seek justice, and, if necessary, revenge.
This is a delightful and entertaining story to read. Harriet's notebook excerps are hilarious and help to demonstrate the confusing world of a maturing adolescent. Although the odds are against her, Harriet doesn't let it keep her down.
Book Review: "Harriet the Spy" is an adolescent must-read!
Summary: 5 Stars
Harriet M. Welsch, current spy and future world-famous author, is in trouble. Her secret spy notebook has been read by her classmates and now they all hate her, even her best friends, Sport and Janie. Her beloved nanny, Ole Golly, has moved away. Harriet is alone. Not even her daily spy route can help her to escape the reality of the situation because she has been caught--the worst thing that can ever happen to a spy. What is she going to do?Before, life was good for Harriet. She ate a tomato sandwich every day for lunch. Ole Golly was there to talk to and to freely share advice. She played Town with Sport and helped Janie with her bizarre science experiments. Even awful Marion Hawthorne and her sidekick, Beth Ellen Hansen, were managable. But as soon as her notebook got found and read by her classmates, Harriet's world was turned upside-down. "They are out to get me," Harriet wrote in her notebook. "The whole room is filled with mean eyes. I won't get through the day. I might throw up my tomato sandwich. ...They may think I am a weakling, but a spy is trained for this kind of fight. I am ready for them."
And so Harriet M. Welsch, undefeatable spy, sets out to seek justice, and, if necessary, revenge.
This is a delightful and entertaining story to read. Harriet's notebook excerps are hilarious and help to demonstrate the confusing world of a maturing adolescent. Although the odds are against her, Harriet doesn't let it keep her down.
Book Review: "Harriet the Spy" is an adolescent must-read!
Summary: 5 Stars
Harriet M. Welsch, current spy and future world-famous author, is in trouble. Her secret spy notebook has been read by her classmates and now they all hate her, even her best friends, Sport and Janie. Her beloved nanny, Ole Golly, has moved away. Harriet is alone. Not even her daily spy route can help her to escape the reality of the situation because she has been caught--the worst thing that can ever happen to a spy. What is she going to do?Before, life was good for Harriet. She ate a tomato sandwich every day for lunch. Ole Golly was there to talk to and to freely share advice. She played Town with Sport and helped Janie with her bizarre science experiments. Even awful Marion Hawthorne and her sidekick, Beth Ellen Hansen, were managable. But as soon as her notebook got found and read by her classmates, Harriet's world was turned upside-down. "They are out to get me," Harriet wrote in her notebook. "The whole room is filled with mean eyes. I won't get through the day. I might throw up my tomato sandwich. ...They may think I am a weakling, but a spy is trained for this kind of fight. I am ready for them."
And so Harriet M. Welsch, undefeatable spy, sets out to seek justice, and, if necessary, revenge.
This is a delightful and entertaining story to read. Harriet's notebook excerps are hilarious and help to demonstrate the confusing world of a maturing adolescent. Although the odds are against her, Harriet doesn't let it keep her down.