I remember reading this book as a tween and being bummed out it wasn't as good as the incredible Harriet the Spy..............kept it all these years and decided to re-read it. Glad I did! It is actually much better to read as an adult! There are so many adult situations, nuances, references that were lost on me as a young reader ....... if you felt let down by it as well when you were young, give it another try - it is actually quite poignant and heartfelt.

A great addition!!

I'm really glad she wrote this book. I actually really LIKED Beth Ellen in the original Harriet the Spy, I thought she was a very interesting character, and as it turns out, she was!!! Fully worthy of her own adventures!!! This book is underrated.

Everybody reads Harriet the Spy, but few continue on with the other books in the series. For my money, The Long Secret is as every bit as good as, and possibly better then, the first book. Concentrating more on Harriet's friend Beth Ellen, The Long Secret combines a tantalizing view of summer life in a Long Island community with a strange mystery of an anonymous note-writer. The Long Secret is an oddly compelling read that would be a perfect summer reading book.

Why five stars for this quirky sequel to Harriet the Spy? Beth Ellen. For some reason, her character’s perspective and transformation was rich to me, relatable and reassuring as it came to its close and Beth Ellen was no longer a mouse and had a voice and felt free. I was rooting for her. I found humor in Harriet, imagined the green glade where the tavern sat. I loved the preacher and his dialogue. This book told a different tale than Fitzhugh’s last. It was about being seen.

It took me a while to realize that Beth Ellen and Harriet's families were summering in the Cape, or wherever families used to summer in the 1960s.

So here's the thing. When I first heard Harriet the Spy in 5th grade, I imagined her in a town much like mine. I had no experience with big cities, or what it was like to live in one, so I put Harriet in my town with tall buildings.

With that in mind, I expected Harriet and Beth Ellen to be in New York still, only to be thrown off that they were in a summer town.

Once I handled that, I accepted that Beth Ellen was the main character here. Harriet's in the book and plays a main part.

(But Harriet, even when the book is focused on her, is different. She mentions Ole Golly once--odd, considering Ole Golly raised Harriet and her departure was so traumatic...)

Beth Ellen did grow up a lot this summer. Harriet didn't grow up this summer.

This book was worth my time, I just wish I had realized a few things before I started!

One of my all time favorite books from my childhood. More than Harriet Welsch, I identified with Beth Ellen Hansen. Harriet felt like the child I wanted to be, while Beth Ellen is the child that I was. Interestingly I have never read Harriet the Spy and one day soon I may pick it up, but The Long Secret is a brilliant book standing on its own.

My very favorite Louise Fitzhugh illustrations!

In the sequel to Harriet the Spy, Harriet is still spying as well as trying to write a story. Her family is at their summer cottage on the shore and strange notes with biblical quotations begin to appear in the village. Harriet recruits her friend Beth Ellen's unwilling help in getting to the bottom of the mystery.

Harriet is as annoying as ever and Louise Fitzhugh's writing is as jarring as Harriet is annoying. Well, puberty is a jarring time and I admire how well Fitzhugh captures it. The girls are 11 going on 12 and most of what adults do is cloaked in mystery as they try to figure it all out.

There were not many books for kids in the 1960s that dealt with the onset of menstruation, the odd bodily stirrings when around boys, the wild imaginings that occur. Judy Blume, Madeline L'Engle, and Beverly Cleary were about the only other ones. Each had their own style ranging from comforting to mystical to humorous. Fitzhugh was perhaps the most outrageous of them all and the most fearless.

Like 'Harriet the Spy' and 'Sport,' a groundbreaking work of children's literature. I don't know if Judy Blume read this before writing 'Are You There, God?' (published in 1970, five years after 'The Long Secret') but two of the central themes are similar--puberty and religion--so there's little doubt that Fitzhugh opened the door for clear-eyed frankness on such subject matter. Like Margaret, Harriet and her intermittent friend (and the real star of 'Secret') Beth Ann occupy a lofty socioeconomic caste. Fitzhugh, however, searches for, and finds, diversity even in Montauk, where her protagonists are summering. This allows her to connect religion to class, and to introduce the delightful Jessie Mae and her decidedly odd family, and to bring in race (and religion) with another strong character, The Preacher. It's hard not to read in autobiography in Fitzhugh's depiction of Sport's mother in that eponymous work and Beth Ann's mother in 'Secret.' It's not a flattering picture. All of these unusual elements mark Fitzhugh's work as revolutionary, albeit delivered in her endearing and immensely attractive style. On to 'Nobody's Family is Going to Change!' Highly recommended.

Fitzhugh is just so great.

This was a great sequel to Harriet the spy. It was almost as good. Totally enjoyable! A great read at he beach or in bed.

I think I actually had read this sequel and forgotten, but it’s really excellent.
“Harriet looked indignant, as always.”