Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Harriet the Spy

by Louise Fitzhugh

Harriet M. Welsch lives on the Upper East Side with her uninvolved parents and her trusted nanny, Ole Golly. She loves egg creams, writing in her notebook, and spying. Lots and lots of spying. Harriet even has her own “spy route” and spying uniform. Essentially, Harriet is an observer of the human condition and records all of her observations in her notebook.

When her notebook is confiscated and read by her classmates, all hell breaks loose. Everyone, friends and foes, gets an eyeful. And nobody likes it.

Can Harriet turn around this situation? Can she learn a lesson about “spying” on others?

I loved, loved, loved this novel as a child. I may not have known the geography of Manhattan or the components of an egg cream or what exactly a dumbwaiter was, but I knew Harriet. I completely understood how she felt, and I still do. The honesty in this novel is unflinching. Ms. Fitzhugh portrays children as they are, at their best and worst. Though it was published in 1964, this novel endures as a classic for girls and boys who love to observe the world around them.

7/17/11

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