I read Harriet the Spy and The Long Secret in grade school and it was only a couple years ago that I discovered there was this other book, Sport. I was excited because I'd liked Sport in Harriet the Spy and was looking forward to reading more about him. Sport reminded me of myself because I was also the only child of a single parent and I took on a lot of worry and responsibility about money. But when I finally managed to lay hands on a copy, I was disappointed. Her writing wasn't nearly so pithy and the plot was thin and predictable. The characters were one-dimensional. It was like when a series becomes a franchise and other authors start writing sequels, except this actually was the original author. It's too bad because Sport could have made a great main character. Perhaps publishers pressured Fitzhugh into writing this sequel, I don't know. But her love for the characters seemed to have gone.

Mind-blowing. On the first page, Sport's (hated, and justly so) mother tells him, 'You've got a goddamned literal mind.' Such a shot across the bow is Fitzhugh's warning that this will not be your standard middle-school fare. It put me in mind of Susan Patron's dropping in 'scrotum' on page one of 'The Higher Power of Lucky' and all the fuss that caused. Come to think of it, Lucky Trimble owes a debt to Harriet Welch; she's even also a spy. 'Sport' is a sequel to 'Harriet the Spy' and sent me back to it, but Harriet only makes a cameo appearance in this astounding novel about an eleven-year-old that includes themes of alcoholism, racism, child custody battles, and death, and yet is still funny and warm and exciting. Highly recommended.

Too short! I've always liked Sport, I wanted more.

I think I started Sport in fifth grade because I loved Harriet the Spy so much but was turned off by the first chapter, where Sport's cartoonish rich mother is interacting with him. She is over the top and reminiscent of Beth Ellen's mother in The Long Secret. So now I decided to read it as an adult and give it more of a chance, and it was an interesting book with the same feel of the others. Sport's mothers mindless pursuit of money and kidnapping her son is a little ridiculous, but I was interested in his father's new girlfriend and how Sport's life will be changing. Sport also has summer friends and one of them is black, and while he is still written in the style of the 60s, this is certainly a step up from the "chocolate covered basett hound " of the Long Secret, altho chocolate is once again used as a descriptor. At one point his character has to interact with cops who call him the N-word, and he and Sports Puerto Rican friend discuss the cops dislike of them. I do believe tho that Louise Fitzhugh was a smart, progressive writer for her time and look forward to reading the other published book she came out with. I always identified most with Harriet, so I was glad she was able to make some cameos. She was pretty subdued at her appearance at a social function but clearly turning into a young woman. She's a little more lively later when she throws cranberry juice on Sport's aunt after she faints. The ending seemed a little abrupt, but I was also reading the ebook version so I didn't know I was getting close to the end. While it's my third favorite of the three books, it's still good and interesting.

Sport's part of the story isn't all that interesting. But the messages about racism and classism are interesting, nuanced but clear, and unfortunately still relevant. All of Harry's peacock camouflage can't protect him from cops who want to arrest his "n.." self, and the Puerto Rican boy, Chi-chi, is almost as terrified. And they're just pre-pubescent boys....

I must have read this as a kid, I know I read HARRIET THE SPY, then read it in 2004 and was blown away and probably got more out of it as a 38 year old than an 8 year old. A true classic. Like The Chocolate War, it's head and shoulders above most of the competition. Deals with some tough issues--is Sport's dad an alcoholic? In a very real, non-dogmatic and ovbious way, which is my beef about quite a bit of the children's and YA stuff that I read today--everything is spelled out in big bold letters. What a true loss Fitzhugh's death is/was.

The third book in the Harriet the Spy world, published posthumously by the Fitzhugh estate in 1979.

This book is, at least to me, an amazing character study. Most of the characters are very complex, and it reads like very real people, right down to the racism. Yes, there's racism in this book, but it is in a believable way that real people deal with, and I think that makes it absolutely valuable.

You know how, in movies, the marginalized character often gets the chance to go on a massive speech and the racist character(s) get their comeuppance? Doesn't happen here, and that makes it all the more real, because, frankly, when folks are being bigoted against you, it's often not in an easy to combat way, or has at least a little ambiguity to it.

Furthermore, it really captures the dysfunction that can emerge in a family. Mr. Vane, the grandfather, is clearly a sexist, and that in turn seems to pass down to his daughters a certain coldness and narcissism. Charlotte mistreats Sport and others at many turns, and, while awful, isn't portrayed as being so just because she's inherently bad. You can see how her character sort of thinks and why she might believe she's justified in doing the awful things she does.

I also enjoyed Sport's inner monologue, and how he'd often think things and not say them. It really took me back to my childhood, in which being silent was often the best course of action.

I love this book as well as Harriet the Spy, because the author never diminishes the concerns or feelings of child characters. Absolutely would recommend.

This is, in my opinion, absolutely not a kids book. YA at best. It's a little jarring right after reading the first two Harriet books and the first of the spin-off series (which does the classic Boxcar Children thing of just going right back to the most simplistic take on the characters and staying there). The first two, despite some heavier themes at times, stay in the realm of middle-grade - some wacky adventures, some hints of parental neglect at times.
This one takes a sharp left turn into dealing with: parental neglect, which escalates into outright abuse and kidnapping, racial injustices, the corrupt institution of the New York police system (from a book written in the 1970s!) and the injustice of the class system.
Harriet herself doesn't show up until the last half of the book, and while she is delightfully herself, it's a sharp reminder of how much she is sheltered in the first and second books by her race and the fact that her parents are well-off. Even though Sport is her best friend and she realises, in a vague way, that he's poor, she has no idea of the true hurt and day to day weariness he's living with, struggling to keep himself and his father afloat.
Kate is a breath of fresh air and someone I WOULD die for, and the beautiful descriptions of people's clothes and the use of them as a lens various people use to view the world is really excellent.

Sport is my favorite character in Harriet the Spy so I was excited to learn that Fitzhugh wrote a book about him. The flavorless text on the back flap says, "Young readers will remember [Sport] as the kid who lived with his father, ran the house, and managed the money." Old readers, like me, remember him too.

Sadly, this book is just as flavorless as its blurb. Sport lacks the zing of Harriet and its follow-up, The Long Secret.

Harriet the Spy has a pretty loose plot. For about 2/3 of the book, all she does is go around and spy on people. It's not until the final 1/3, when her "friends" find her spy diary, does the book have a solid story thread.

Sport meanders for about 9/10 of the book. Sport's awful mother yells at him. Sport's dad gets married to his angelic girlfriend, Kate. Sport hangs out with his multi-ethnic friends. Sport's grandfather dies. Then Sport's demonic mother kidnaps him and holds him hostage to try and keep all of her dead father's inheritance.

That last part could have been the plot of a whole book, but it's literally a chapter and a half.

I didn't mind Harriet meandering because her spying was interesting. The people she watched felt like real people -- weird people -- round characters with their own lives to observe. Everyone in Sport is one note. His mother is an evil harpy, a less subtle version of Beth Ellen's awful mother in The Long Secret. Sport's black friend is black, we're reminded on almost every page. His dad, the closest thing to a round character, is dopey but harmless. Sport's new stepmom, Kate, is too good to be believed, a walking saint who makes them breakfast, lunch, dinner and still holds down a job and pays the bills, and has a sense of humor, and doesn't mind dad's bad driving, and...

The high point of this book is when Sport trolls his rich mom and aunt by inviting his black friend, his fat friend, and Harriet over for dinner. Harriet is a little older, but just as obnoxious and funny. (Whenever the kids are offered cranberry juice, they freak out. A running gag I don't understand.) At the end, Fitzhugh touches on racist cops in New York City, which is quite interesting, but weird coming out of left field in an otherwise cartoonish book.

Fitzhugh died before Sport was published. As a result, this feels like the sketch of a story, sadly left unfinished without any personality.

“Don't you understand that I was once fifteen years old! That I looked at my mother the same way you're looking at me? That I see the hatred in your eyes and the despair and the love and all of it?”

“I'm eleven,” said Sport.

Those opening lines set the tone of the relationship between Sport and his mother. And how many times will you see the word “goddamned” in a children's book? That took me by surprise, especially coming out of a mother's mouth to her little boy. Throughout the entire book, Sport's father very honestly talks to his son or around his son about what a horrible mother his ex-wife is, and how she lives out of the country so she doesn't have to exercise her parental rights. It was actually quite refreshing!

I think I may have liked this book the best of the three “Harriet the Spy” books. Although Harriet doesn't even make an appearance until page 110. But that was fine with me.

The book also matter of factly addresses racism, with a police officer calling Sport's friend, Harry, the N-word, and referring to Harry and another friend as “Ellis Island”.

There are lots of humourous scenes, especially some of the scenes with Sport's father's new girlfriend, which made me laugh out loud. But the best part about her was the way she quickly took to Sport and lavished him with the unconditional love he'd never gotten from his mother.

This is just a wonderful little gem of a book.

This book made me shout so with laughter that my mother came running to see if I was alright. I read it the summer after high school when I was stuck home with a broken leg, and I must admit I don't remember the plot all that clearly. But it has to do with Sport, one of the two best friends of Harriet the Spy, the son of a starving writer who tries to balance his dad's impracticality by learning to keep the books and cook the vegetables (all before turning 10, I believe). Harriet is quite a sharp-tongued bitch in her own book but she really outdoes herself in this one. I can't remember what it was she said that so amused me, but I do know it's worth finding out for yourself.