A mediocre story about one of Harriet the Spy's friends. Not near as fun as the original spy book or The Long Secret.

Wes Anderson must make a film of Sport. I am willing to bet he read it growing up. Simultaneously laugh aloud funny and heart-breaking. Fantastic parody of late 60s NYC and old money/boho clashes. Cocktails, Brooks Bros, integration, and a kidnapping to the Plaza Hotel, much if it apparently based on Fitzhugh's own experiences as a pawn in her parens' bitter divorce.

Weirdly for a lesbian feminist author, the character of Kate is portrayed in a very sexist way. But perhaps this is also Fitzhugh's comment on what she perceived as the norm for adult behaviour.

This is the third book in the Harriet the Spy young adult series, and my favorite so far. I really love Sport as a character. He is loyal and kind and innocent to the poverty and family struggles he was born into. I had a lot of anxiety seeing what Sport’s crazy mother was going to do next. My heart goes out to this character always!

Overall, an entertaining read. The ending was weak.

Any book featuring my hero Harriet M. Welsch earns at least 4 stars.

Some deeply unfortunate racial stereotypes (oh hello, 1960s and 70s America), but also some deeply powerful racial commentary (especially given that this was written by a white woman, no matter the time). I was super surprised.

I enjoyed this book. It is really a comedy of errors of sorts.

My favorite of the Harriet the Spy trilogy. I adore Sport and his friends (Harriet gets in my nerves after a while), and it was lovely to have a smart, competent adult appear in the form of Kate.

This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.

Sport, one of Harriet M. Welch’s best friends, lives with his dad ,who is an excellent parent, though he is not wealthy or sophisticated like Sport’s mother. Early in the story, Sport’s grandfather passes away, leaving Sport a significant sum of money. This prompts his mother to become suddenly interested in her son’s well-being and she begins trying to gain custody of Sport in place of his dad. When she doesn’t get her way right off the bat, Sport finds himself kidnapped!

I had some reservations when I first decided to read Sport, because I knew it had been rejected by Louise Fitzhugh’s publisher in her lifetime, and was only published later on, after she died. (The full story on that is written up very nicely here, on a blog called Harriet the Spy: the Unauthorized Biography.) Still, I was curious about the differences between Sport and the two titles that were so well-received while Fitzhugh was alive - Harriet the Spy and The Long Secret. I have to say, I’m glad I took the chance, because of the three, this wound up being my favorite.

First and foremost, I found this book much easier to read than the other two. One of my frustrations with both Harriet the Spy and The Long Secret is the sophistication of the language, mostly because it distracts me from everything else about the stories. I could never get immersed in characters or plot in those earlier books because the language seemed to call so much attention to itself. This does not happen in Sport. Rather, this story feels like it comes from the point of view of a child, and even the atmosphere of New York City and the issues Sport has with his parents feel more relatable and contemporary.

The second thing I noticed about this book was that I actually felt some connection to Sport. I didn’t feel much of anything for Harriet or Mouse, but Sport got into my head and stayed there for a while. His struggles with adults and his confusion with sorting out the good adults from the bad ones are universal experiences, and I felt real sympathy for him as he went through those situations. I also liked seeing the diversity of his friends, and how cartoonish Harriet seems among them. In his own story, Sport becomes much more than the boy who doesn’t understand how to play town.

I do recognize, of course, that girls have loved Harriet and The Long Secret for at least three generations now, and I want to say that of course those books have merit. I just think they’re for a certain type of reader in a certain type of mood. Sport, on the other hand, is an easier read, more likely to interest boys, and focuses on issues kids still face today - perhaps even more than they did in the 1960s or 70s.

Sport is a great read-alike for books by E.L. Konigsburg and Madeleine L’Engle, who also tackle important real-life issues often against a New York City backdrop.

Eleven year old Sport is living with his divorced father who has 50% custody, although Sport's mother is mostly out of the picture from traveling and not wanting to be around children. His mother is a distant and cold individual who is only interested in custody of Sport to get a higher inheritance from her father.
It is really hard to comprehend how a mother can be so unloving and unkind to her own child. I suppose this does exist in the world. Sport is pretty much acting as a adult with heavy responsibility at home due to his father being inept at finances and taking care of daily activities--he is a writer who works from home.
Harriet the spy comes into the story toward the end, which is a causes a little discontinuity to the story. It seems she was thrown in to make this novel one of other sequels to Harriet the Spy.

I really liked this book when I read it as a kid.

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