God, I love Harriet! The angriest, strangest girl: what must it have been like when she crashed into kidlit in the late 60s?

Always reread Harriet when I'm sick! She is great company.

Re-read for the millionth time. Wonderful.

It isn't often that you come across a children's book where the author really doesn't pander at all. Harriet is not written as a character. That is, she is not a collection of traits and quirks that readers are sure to find endearing and will transfer nicely to subsequent volumes of a series. Harriet the Spy is a novel that happens to feature a child as lead character, similar to how certain other novels meant for a more mature audience - such as To Kill a Mockingbird to give one example - can also be described. The author Louise Fitzhugh doesn't go to places as dark as Harper Lee or J.D. Salinger, so Harriet the Spy is firmly categorized as children's literature rather than a book one might recommend to adults. But grown folk, particularly parents, will enjoy this book because they know that kids along with being adorable can also be real pains in the ass. They can be selfish. They can be bratty. They can be unreasonable. They can be cruel. In short, they can be a lot like immature adults. Being young, they will have more difficulty coping with a traumatic event like the sudden departure of a loved one than an adult. Not enough life wisdom and experience with disappointment has been amassed yet. A child is more likely to respond by acting out, magnifying their less endearing qualities. Kids start out being quite imaginative but this trait dulls over time until a great many end up as adults who have virtually no imagination. Often imagination is rekindled upon becoming a parent and revisiting that part of one's personality. But a few fortunate people (those who end up becoming writers and other types of artists, for example) retain the ability to sculpt universes with their minds. Harriet is an 11 year old with her powers of imagination still strongly intact even though she's reaching an age where more serious things are supposed to be of concern. Her imagination is enhanced by the power of observation. She is curious about everything and everyone, and she documents all that she sees and feels in an attempt to figure the world out. She is a spy of the human condition, which I suppose is just another way of saying that she's a writer. Since she writes unflinchingly about what and who she knows, this gets her in trouble when her beloved notebook falls into the hands of her peers and they learn of the various uncomplimentary opinions she holds about them. She is ostracized. Even her two closest friends abandon her. Rather than dealing with this in a cutesy manner that you would expect to find in a children's book, Harriet responds with rage and indignation. If everyone is going to hate her, she may as well truly earn their disdain. But she's neither villain nor hero, just a girl who wants to understand and maybe also be understood, and who doesn't plan to change for anyone because she likes herself just fine as is. Kids will relate to Harriet. To them reading this book will be like looking into a mirror and discovering that their fears and insecurities and concerns are not so unique after all. They are what growing up is all about, unequal parts of wonder, delight, heartache and triumph. Harriet is a book character you'll remember because she feels like a flesh and blood person who has figured out at an early age not to try to be like everyone else, or to be liked by everyone. And she has learned that honesty can sometimes be a complex policy. She discovers that it makes the most sense to be yourself (even if that isn't always a particularly simple thing to do) and with any luck things will work out just fine.

Congratulations, Harriet; I hate you. Or, to quote myself while I was listening to your hateful antics, "Eff you, Harriet." I mean, really? How often do you find yourself hating a book character, especially a popular children's book character? I feel like I'm having a childish response to her, but, wow. What a horrible, rotten, mean kid.

Harriet loves to spy on people and write about them. And I was very much in favor of a female protagonist child writer that writes about the quirky things she sees like the man with the 26 cats who eats kidneys off of 26 plates while he eats yogurt in another room. But then it turned out that Harriet was also writing about all of her friends--and not just the good things. She was writing horrible things about her friends. And when they find out that she's been thinking and writing all these horrible things about them, she writes even worse things about them and then starts to do bad things to them in revenge for their revenge. To reward her for this horrible behavior, her mainly-absent parents let her skip school, and her teachers give her a coveted writing position. Yes, it's good to have her funnel her abilities into a positive outlet, but she just goes from writing bad things about kids to writing bad things about adults.

I'm glad I listened to this with my child so that we could talk about what Harriet was doing wrong. And I was glad that there were negative consequences for her negative actions even if they weren't lasting. However, I don't think Harriet really did learn her lesson. How she ever makes friends again is beyond me. Ugh. I know this is a popular book that's withstood the test of time, but I can't get past my utter disdain for and visceral reaction to Harriet in order to actually like this book.

I re-read this book for the Shelf Discovery challenge one blog is promoting. I hadn't read it in 30 years or so. I feel extremely old now.

This book definitely describes an environment that most readers would be unfamiliar with (living in Manhattan with a cook and a nanny and attending private school) but nonetheless there is much to find relatable about Harriet, an 11 year old with a caustic wit and curiousity that nonetheless still seems like an 11 year old. Ole Golly is a totally original character as well--whoever heard of writing a missive to a child saying "If you're missing me, I want you to know I'm not missing you." Yet somehow this letter and the fact it inspires Harriet speaks volumes about the both of them. Although I found resolution to Harriet's problem slightly unbelievable, I still love this story and I'm glad I re-read it. While I never sneaked into my neighbor's houses and spied on them, Harriet really inspired me as a child as she was and still is an intelligent, non-traditional heroine. I hope kids, especially girls, are still reading this today.

Yes indeed, I do very well realise that many children’s literature experts (professors, teachers, researchers) do seem to strongly consider that Louise Fitzhugh’s 1964 Harriet the Spy is to be seen and approached as a classic amongst realistic children’s novels. But honestly and truly, as an actual reader (and both in the autumn of 1977 when we read Harriet the Spy for grade five English and in the winter of 2021 when I decided to reread Harriet the Spy in order to post a Goodreads review), sorry, but even though with regard to writing style, Louise Fitzhugh does in fact present a pretty decently written story, thematically and content wise Harriet the Spy really so totally and utterly manages to rub me the wrong proverbial way that I can and will only consider but two stars maximum for Harriet the Spy, for Louise Fitzhugh’s presented narrative, and also must categorically point out that albeit Fitzhugh certainly writes engagingly, what she has penned, how she has shown and presented especially her main protagonist Harriet Welsch has really been a totally miserable and frustrating personal reading experience, with a major lack of pleasure, with really no enjoyment whatsoever (both then, both in 1977, and now, in 2021, and also just recently in 2022, when I decided very reluctantly to try once more, to give Harriet the Spy one more chance).

For while I do generally tend to appreciate and find much pleasure reading about children trying to become writers, sadly and frustratingly, the rather obvious fact that Louise Fitzhugh’s Harriet Welsch attempts to for the most part only practice her writing talents by nastily stalking, spying on and penning often really horrid and brutal observations about her friends and acquaintances in Harriet the Spy (instead of for example practicing and fine tuning her writing skills by creating original stories and/or poems and making use of her imagination), indeed, this has both as a child and as an adult reader really made me not only absolutely and totally emotionally despise Harriet with every fibre of my being and to wholeheartedly consider her, to consider Harriet Welsch both an annoying and bullying false friend, pretty much ill mannered and even in my opinion verging on being a bona fide sociopath (or worse), that there also do not seem to be nearly enough serious consequences for Harriet’s spying and that she equally does not really seem to learn any major lessons throughout Harriet the Spy either except perhaps that she should not let herself get caught out and lose sight of her filled to the brim with secret and often really quite nasty observations spy notebook, this really does make me so emotionally livid that yes, my only, my strongest reaction to the contents and themes of Harriet the Spy and to Harriet Welsch as a character is absolutely one of major rage, of massive anger and of thus also not AT ALL enjoying the thematics and contents of Louise Fitzhugh’s featured text.

And to be brutally honest, my ranking of two stars for Harriet the Spy is in my humble opinion actually even quite generous, for if I were to ONLY consider my profoundly negative in every way emotional reaction and how much I really do totally hate hate hate Harriet Welsch and her stalking, spying ways on a personal level, I should likely be considering only one star for Harriet the Spy (but well, Louise Fitzhugh does have a stylistic flair which I certainly am able to appreciate, so two stars it is for Harriet the Spy, but certainly granted only very grudgingly). Oh and by the way, the negative and bigoted referrals to Native Americans in Harriet the Spy (as recently pointed out by Debbie Reese and that they do seem to also be totally gratuitous), this certainly makes me even more livid and not very much in the mood to either recommend Harriet the Spy or to in any manner truly consider this novel as being a classic.

I cannot believe in all these years of reading this book, I completely overlooked the queer subtext. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? The things I learn from our classics readalongs! Also, one of our blog friends mentioned it's possible Harriet may be on the autism spectrum. One of those cases where discussing a book makes you look at something you love in a whole new light.

Our whole discussion is here: http://www.themidnightgarden.net/2014...

Read the comments, too--our readers/friends are so smart!

When I was in fourth grade, I would have named Harriet the Spy as my very favorite book, even though I only read the first half of it. I re-read that first half so many times though, it was practically an obsession. First of all, Harriet's commentary in her notebook in hilariously funny. But more than that, I wanted to be a writer just like Harriet, so I was going to do things her way. I even went so far as to look in one of my neighbor's windows for material, but I got caught on the first try.

As a kid, I could not get through the part when her notebook was found and she became the class outcast. I so over-identified with Harriet that it was too much for me. I finally finished the book in my 20's, and it was worth it just for the writing lesson, "It was hard to make up the part when he found the cat." That's the fiction writing process summed up right there. Copying from real life is easy; adding a storyline is the challenge.

I'd recommend this book to kids who have an interest in writing, but only with parental guidance. Kids should be warned against peeking into their neighbor's houses even if they ought to know better, and some kids might need to discuss the ostracism section with an adult. It's every kid's worst nightmare. Having said that, it's one of the best books I've ever read.

I received this book as a birthday gift on either my sixth or seventh birthday (I think it was my seventh. I still remember the name of the friend who gave it to me, too). I loved it then, and I still do now. Harriet is a quirky kid, a bit out-of-step with her peers, and that was something I could always relate to (not to mention my childhood ambition to be a writer!).

I used to read it at least once a year, growing up, even after I was "too old" for it (you're never too old for Harriet), but had to throw my old copy away quite some time ago, because it was in pieces. Finally, I got around to replacing it earlier this week; next on my list is making my husband read it :-P

One great thing about reading a childhood favorite over and over again is that, as you mature, you appreciate the book differently. I always knew I liked Fitzhugh's style, but I hadn't realized until this reading what it was I so enjoyed. Much like Judy Blume, this writer didn't talk down to her readers, and she didn't present a perfect, virtuous heroine. Harriet is believable.

Harriet The Spy has a sort of dryly witty delivery that I've always appreciated, and it's clear Fitzhugh had a lot of affection for her characters. It's no wonder this became such a classic.

I started reading early and started reading beyond my age level very quickly, so I was pretty much beyond children's books way before I was done being a child. Sometimes it seems like I went directly from Dr. Seuss to Grimm's Fairy Tales and then on to adult books. But this was one children's book that truly changed my life.

The book is about a little girl who fancies herself a spy, and keeps a "secret notebook" full of observations about her family, classmates and neighbors. I imagine that most little girls who read this book started their own secret notebooks. I certainly did, and never stopped, though mine came to be called a "journal" and later, a "blog." Plain and simple, this is the book that started me writing, and I never stopped. Harriet the Spy was truly a Book That Changed My Life. It's a great gift for a young girl or boy, plus the illustrations are great.

A counterculture children's novel that may be an acquired taste for some, like, for example, the Catcher in the Rye, but nonetheless unique and potentially avant-garde for its time. Its rebellious kookiness fits in perfectly with the estranged youth of the 60s, paving the way for kaleidoscopic Beatlemania, and Harriet's cocky stride on the iconic cover is the perfect bookend to Abbey Road. I didn't enjoy this novel much at first and thought its humour tasteless and crude, but when everything started to unravel about halfway through, after Harriet loses her notebook, I was forced to reassess my initial opinion. You don't really know the real Harriet till she hits rock bottom, and then you get to see just how emotionally blunted she has become as a result of her buried intelligence. Without a facet through which to express herself, Harriet becomes nothing but a vegetable (literally, an onion), and it takes Ole Golly's alternative methods to bring her back to herself.

https://rogueliterarysociety.com/f/ha...

...OLE GOLLY SAYS THERE IS AS MANY WAYS TO LIVE AS THERE ARE PEOPLE ON THE EARTH AND I SHOULDN’T GO ROUND WITH BLINDERS BUT SHOULD SEE EVERY WAY I CAN. THEN I’LL KNOW WHAT WAY I WANT TO LIVE AND NOT JUST LIVE LIKE MY FAMILY…

One of my favorite contemporary writers, Katherine Hale, mentioned in an essay how important Louise Fitzhugh was to her and how much she influenced the way she wrote. I believe this to be true. Brutal honesty and a clever tone is found in both of these writers. Biting sarcasm and jaded feelings also arise from time to time in their texts. But it is refreshing, and their fictional characters often reminds me of another interesting iconic character who went by the name of Holden Caulfield.

...Ole Golly says find out everything you can cause life is hard enough even if you know a lot…

The questions Harriet asks, and all the wise answers she receives from her nanny Ole Golly, are sophisticated in much the same way Holden’s were. Holden relied on a few trusted advisers but for the most part never trusted anyone.

...PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEIR WORK LOVE LIFE…

Harriet does love spying on people. She also loves recording what she sees. However, there is much more to learn about living and being true to oneself.

...Tears won’t bring me back. Remember that. Tears never bring anything back. Life is a struggle and a good spy gets in there and fights…

Though written for a younger audience, this book can be enjoyed at any age. Hard to imagine I never heard of this book or writer before. And thanks to the infamous Katherine Hale I finally did.