In retrospect, so weird. (Still so good)

The Long Secret by Louise Fitzhugh is the second tale in the Harriet the Spy series. In this installment we meet Harriet, her friends Beth Ellen, Janie, Jessie, Norman and the Preacher. Someone is sending biblical messages to people throughout the town and Harriet the spy extraordinaire, is determined to uncover this mystery. A single thread deals with the changes bodies of girls when menstruation starts. It is handled in a matter of fact matter that suits the girls who have gone through this change and those who have not namely Harriet! A delightful revisiting of the character of Harriet the Spy and her urge to know the who, what, when, where and how of events in her community.

What do I like about this book?

The heat... it makes me remember the actual heat of long summer days and the boredom, drama, and job of being 12 years old and being on the brink of growing up. When I read this book, I actually remember riding my bike and what cement smells like after a summer rain. I am not sure why, there is no rain in the book, but maybe it is because it reminds me of my 12th summer.

For a book written in the '60s, this was groundbreaking and probably extremely controversial because of the discussion of menstruation and open mention of poor parenting. I love how Beth Ellen is so extremely introverted and so dramatic, if only on the inside. While Beth Ellen is clam and flat on the outside, she is working hard to be as blank on the inside, thus this is her drama. I think she played well against Jessie Mae, the southern holly roller who knows the value of "bless her little heart" and loud Harriet.

I enjoyed the book and rated it a strong 3.5 stars for general enjoyment.

Happy Reading!

"Harriet the Spy" was one of my favorite books as a child, but this book is just...weird. Most of the characters--adults and children--seem unlikeable and cartoonish. Harriet does a little half-hearted spying in the book, but the plot mostly centers on her friend Beth Ellen's lack of direction and self-centered, neglectful mother. There is also a mystery that is not very compelling, and some of the plot seems aimed at an older audience than the book is marketed to (ages 9-12). So many acrimonious scenes in bars with adult characters whose issues with each other are difficult to discern!

Still holds up beautifully after all these years. Beth Ellen is a haunted and haunting heroine and Fitzhugh is as interesting and nuanced a writer as writers for young readers get (her B&W line drawings are gorgeous too). Not as great as my favorite YA novel of all time, Harriet the Spy, but still special, a classic. If you haven't read both books you're really missing out.

All in all I enjoy the writing and the story telling. The characters and world feel real. I think if my younger self read this, maybe I'd enjoy Harriett, herself, but woooh boy is she just insufferable... she's a bulldozer of a person with little to no consideration for anyone....
This story, while including characters from the last book is a very abrupt switch from the first book, to the point it was initially jarring. When I got into the book though, it definitely kept me engaged and made me laugh.


"Maybe I should consider having babies. Do I want a baby? What would I do with it? It would all the time be crying and wanting to be fed. And all those diapers. Well."

"Dear me,
Why am I so different? Why am I never happy? Is everbody like this or is it just me? I am truly a mouse. I have no desire at all to be me.
Goodbye,
Mouse "

"I'm---menstruating!"
"What's that?"
"It"s--"
"I just remembered, how come you're doing that and I'm not?
It was an unanswerable question.

I loved it but I have so many questions.

The main story in this book is really about Harriet's friend Beth Ellen. She is so quiet and mousy but she goes through a lot during the course of this book. At one point, I almost fell out of my chair laughing, and by the end, I doubted that I had understood anything. I was happy for Beth Ellen, but like Harriet, I didn't understand her either.

There were some other characters and things that happened in the book that I would give anything to ask Fitzhugh about why she included them. They were just not realistic to me.

I might like this better than the first one. I loved Beth Ellen, the setting, the bigger questions at play.

I read and loved HARRIET THE SPY when I was a kid, and upon reading it again as an adult not too long ago I still very much enjoyed it. But I don't remember reading this book, or the next book, SPORT, when I was younger.

In this book, it's summer and Harriet and her mother are staying at the beach, while her father comes out on the weekends. Janie was Harriet's best friend in the first book, but Harriet muses at one point about how during the summers at the beach Beth Ellen is her best friend. Beth Ellen is very quiet and demure, and she sometimes seems weary of Harriet's company, yet at other times she welcomes Harriet's brash enthusiasm.

The book starts out with Harriet still spying on people, while Beth Ellen follows along in her wake, and determined to figure out who is leaving mysterious notes all around town, notes that are vaguely insulting to the person who receives them. But somewhere along the way the focus shifts to Beth Ellen, and ultimately this was more her book than Harriet's. Beth Ellen lives with her grandmother. One day her grandmother excitedly informs her that her mother, Zeeney, is coming home. Beth Ellen doesn't know her flighty mother, and is very apprehensive about meeting her. And rightly so. Zeeney is a flat out bitch who cares about nothing other than having money, having expensive stuff, and running around partying and being seen.

“I was born in October,” said Harriet as though October were the only really satisfactory month to be born in.

Me too, Harriet, me too!

This book starts out wonderfully, with a mystery worthy of Harriet's particular skill set. Someone is leaving notes for people around town, usually biblical quotes with an amusing relevance (though unsettling to the recipients!) But after a while it's all but forgotten and the story shifts to mousy Beth Ellen and her vacuous, self-absorbed mother, who is returning after years spent away in Europe. We are supposed to hate this woman, of course, but these situations go on and on and are quite unpleasant. Beth Ellen, though we can tell she has something bubbling beneath the surface, is too wishy-washy to be of interest. Harriet herself is rather horrid, always yelling at her friends, no more the likeable rogue she was in the first book. The only appealing character is Janie, the intellectual, but she is only in the book briefly. There are strange digressions about religion and menstruation that seem out of place. The mystery of the notes is finally solved as an afterthought in the last few pages. There are a lot of good bits throughout the book, which still earn it a decent rating, but it's not nearly as enjoyable as Harriet the Spy.

Harriet The Spy is one of my favorite books of childhood, and I was so excited when I found that there were additional books available. This book was less about Harriet than it was about her friend Beth Ellen. It was really interesting to get insight on her life. The writing took me back to being 12 and having adventures with my friends. It definitely touches on some serious topics, and accurately portrays how most kids see adults in those tween years. I really enjoyed this book.

This book is barely a Harriet book and definitely focuses more on Beth Ellen and her growth. While I liked it just fine, I was reading it with my kids and I think some of the topics maybe a little too “grown” for them. Having never read the Harriet books until now, maybe I’m just picking up on things the kids don’t, but the dynamics of Beth Ellen’s family and the heavy focus on religion seemed a bit much for a children’s book.

I think I’ll choose to remember the movie Harriet who was a lot less rude and seemed to find her stride in her group of friends, rather than book Harriet who hasn’t learned anything about treating others with respect.