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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm pretty sure my younger self would have enjoyed this book, but adult me really found it off-putting. Harriet is a very unlikable protagonist and it very much bothered me that she didn't really learn anything. And don't get me started on the loathsome adults. Ugh.
adventurous
funny
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I’m glad I finally read this at the ripe old age of 47. Harriet is great! I love that she really knows what she wants and is determined to get it. Meanwhile, she is very aware that she is only 11 and she is really figuring out how to be a person. There’s a great scene in which she found out from a friend that she’ll be forced to go to dancing school and before her parents even bring it up she loudly informs them that she won’t attend. They try to calm her and she keeps yelling at the top of her lungs that she won’t go, which of course is not effective. “She wasn’t getting the right reaction. Something was wrong.”
When she learns that her nurse (which here I think means nanny?) is going to get married and all of a sudden like wurst because her husband-to-be keeps taking her out to German restaurants, Harriet writes in her notebook: “I THINK MAYBE THEY’RE ALL RIGHT WHEN THEY SAY THERE ARE SOME THINGS I WON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT UNTIL I’M OLDER. BUT IF IT MAKES YOU LIKE TO EAT ALL KINDS OF WURST I’M NOT SURE I’M GOING TO LIKE THIS.”
There is also a great scene in which Harriet is trying to pretend to be an onion for a school dance program. Her father tries to help her but admits he feels more like a scallion.
I loved her friend Janie who is always threatening to blow things up.
I was surprised at how rich Harriet’s family seems to be. They are a family of three and have three staff, and Harriet apparently attends a private school. She doesn’t seem to realize how well off they are, although as she thinks about her family and her friend Sport’s family, and how he talks about money, she starts to realize the difference, mostly based on the fact that he has to think about money and she never does.
In a way I wish I had read this as a kid like everyone else, but I’m also glad I read it now. It was the book I needed this week.
When she learns that her nurse (which here I think means nanny?) is going to get married and all of a sudden like wurst because her husband-to-be keeps taking her out to German restaurants, Harriet writes in her notebook: “I THINK MAYBE THEY’RE ALL RIGHT WHEN THEY SAY THERE ARE SOME THINGS I WON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT UNTIL I’M OLDER. BUT IF IT MAKES YOU LIKE TO EAT ALL KINDS OF WURST I’M NOT SURE I’M GOING TO LIKE THIS.”
There is also a great scene in which Harriet is trying to pretend to be an onion for a school dance program. Her father tries to help her but admits he feels more like a scallion.
I loved her friend Janie who is always threatening to blow things up.
I was surprised at how rich Harriet’s family seems to be. They are a family of three and have three staff, and Harriet apparently attends a private school. She doesn’t seem to realize how well off they are, although as she thinks about her family and her friend Sport’s family, and how he talks about money, she starts to realize the difference, mostly based on the fact that he has to think about money and she never does.
In a way I wish I had read this as a kid like everyone else, but I’m also glad I read it now. It was the book I needed this week.
The theme this month for my book club was children’s books. Someone picked this one.
I was 10 or 11 when this book came out and I never read it. Not sure why, as I was an avid reader.
This wasn’t one of my favorite stories but I like that it was a complex book about children aimed at children. I liked that Harriet met with a psychiatrist or psychologist.
I liked Ole Golly and Sport. Sport’s story showed a child who learned that he had to take care of his father.
I liked the exposure young readers had to the complex, sometimes sad, lives of children.
I was 10 or 11 when this book came out and I never read it. Not sure why, as I was an avid reader.
This wasn’t one of my favorite stories but I like that it was a complex book about children aimed at children. I liked that Harriet met with a psychiatrist or psychologist.
I liked Ole Golly and Sport. Sport’s story showed a child who learned that he had to take care of his father.
I liked the exposure young readers had to the complex, sometimes sad, lives of children.
I am 50 years old and listened to this book on CD having never read it as a child.
There's a lot of negativity in this book and I felt overall that it was too long.
I appreciated a lot of Harriet's qualities such as intelligence, determination and a drive to observe and write. However, she has a lot of anger and I simply don't sanction how she exacts revenge on her peers.
There's a lot of negativity in this book and I felt overall that it was too long.
I appreciated a lot of Harriet's qualities such as intelligence, determination and a drive to observe and write. However, she has a lot of anger and I simply don't sanction how she exacts revenge on her peers.
(Trigger Warnings: Fatphobia, Ableism)
Harriet the Spy is insufferable. She hates Pinky Whitehead solely because she doesn’t like the way he looks. After she meets Ole Golly’s mother, who is extremely overweight, she envisions a story in which the woman gets run over by a truck but the truck takes damage instead because she’s so fat. There’s a kid in her class who arrived an entire year ago who she still doesn’t know the name of because she deemed him too boring to care about.
She calls herself a spy and that gives her license to sneak around, eavesdrop and take, often, cruel notes about people including those she considers her close friends. She carries a notebook everywhere so as to always have a place to jot down her thoughts. In short, she’s a hateful, petty, beastly child. Every moment spent reading about her was painful. I was in a constant state of irritation or disgust.
That being said, it’s not her fault.
I don’t know much about parenting in the 60s when this book was released, but I am all too aware that we have progressed a lot since then in terms of what we deem acceptable. Looking at it through a modern lens her parents are wildly neglectful, relying entirely on her nanny Ole Golly to keep her somewhat in line. It’s possible that even by 60s standards her parents are bad, however, I don’t have enough knowledge of the period to make that call.
Kids are naturally self involved to a certain degree. They learn over time to think about others from parents, peers, teachers, etc. It’s something that takes years to fully develop and must be consciously ingrained in them. Even then, kids still slip up because we’re all only human. Personality and temperament play a part in how much stock the kid puts into having empathy. There are parents who do everything right from an objective point of view only for the kid to be a piece of garbage regardless.
My point is that either way the parent should be actively trying as much as possible because the odds are already stacked against you given how much influence exists outside of the home. Also - and I may be the minority on this one - I think parents should like their kids so it really shouldn’t be that much of a hardship to spend time with them to instill important lessons.
Harriet’s parents’ general disregard for Harriet is clearly the source of a lot of her problems. Harriet struggles with emotional regulation. Tantrums are common for her. When confronted with a negative emotion she chooses to lash out tenfold to punish the other person for upsetting her. She keeps track of exactly what bothers other people to deploy when needed because she assumes there will be a time they deserve it. She not only wants to carry her notebook around, she needs to or she sinks into an almost dissociative state. She literally cannot comprehend why others would be angry at her for misbehavior as it is impossible for her to wrap her head around being upset about what she perceives to be facts. The fact that other people are upset with her is cause for great anger as she believes she’s completely above reproach.
She thrives under routine, sticking to it fastidiously. Ole Golly leaving the job due to her engagement is honestly a large part of why Harriet has a meltdown in the latter half of the book. She has absolutely no one left who understands her the way Ole Golly did. Worse yet, there’s no one who even wants to try. No longer having that familiar structure to fall back on is unimaginably stressful for her.
Surprisingly, her parents do try to get her therapy when things reach a boiling point. Except it’s primarily centered around trying to fix her for their benefit rather than help her for Harriet’s own sake. Under these parameters is it any wonder Harriet lacks compassion?
Unlike some of the other reviews I’ve seen I was actually not upset with Ole Golly’s advice to lie when Harriet’s life implodes. For one thing, it's abundantly clear that Harriet’s parents coached her on what to say. For another, her advice wasn't only to lie. There are times when lying makes sense - think white lies. While you can argue that this was more than a little white lie, it’s not like Ole Golly can teach her all the nuances about lying to spare feelings all in a single letter that Harriet’s parents assuredly proofread before delivering. And to be fair, she did at least encourage Harriet to write real stories, not only rude commentary.
Harriet the Spy is apparently a milestone in children’s literature. I’ve read a fair amount of classics taking place in the time leading up to Harriet the Spy’s publication so I feel pretty well versed in this ‘genre’. Well versed enough to see how game changing this must have been at the time. In a sea of plucky, spirited girls who eventually conform to strict societal standards to become upstanding young ladies of respectable repute Harriet undoubtedly stands out. I’m sure it was refreshing to have a girl not have to tow the party line even if she was terrible.
To be honest, I don’t even think the fact that she is terrible registers to kids in the first place. Look at how many people said they loved this as a child only to be horrified re-reading it now. Or even if it does register that’s actually appealing to kids. Look at the success of Diary of a Wimpy Kid for instance. Greg is a jerk yet everybody eats it up anyways - let the record show I absolutely love Greg Heffley so I am not immune.
I’ll leave you with Louise Fitzhugh’s own words on the subject “[Harriet is] a nasty little girl who keeps a notebook on all of her friends”. If you can handle this holding true for 300 pages, be my guest.
Harriet the Spy is insufferable. She hates Pinky Whitehead solely because she doesn’t like the way he looks. After she meets Ole Golly’s mother, who is extremely overweight, she envisions a story in which the woman gets run over by a truck but the truck takes damage instead because she’s so fat. There’s a kid in her class who arrived an entire year ago who she still doesn’t know the name of because she deemed him too boring to care about.
She calls herself a spy and that gives her license to sneak around, eavesdrop and take, often, cruel notes about people including those she considers her close friends. She carries a notebook everywhere so as to always have a place to jot down her thoughts. In short, she’s a hateful, petty, beastly child. Every moment spent reading about her was painful. I was in a constant state of irritation or disgust.
That being said, it’s not her fault.
I don’t know much about parenting in the 60s when this book was released, but I am all too aware that we have progressed a lot since then in terms of what we deem acceptable. Looking at it through a modern lens her parents are wildly neglectful, relying entirely on her nanny Ole Golly to keep her somewhat in line. It’s possible that even by 60s standards her parents are bad, however, I don’t have enough knowledge of the period to make that call.
Kids are naturally self involved to a certain degree. They learn over time to think about others from parents, peers, teachers, etc. It’s something that takes years to fully develop and must be consciously ingrained in them. Even then, kids still slip up because we’re all only human. Personality and temperament play a part in how much stock the kid puts into having empathy. There are parents who do everything right from an objective point of view only for the kid to be a piece of garbage regardless.
My point is that either way the parent should be actively trying as much as possible because the odds are already stacked against you given how much influence exists outside of the home. Also - and I may be the minority on this one - I think parents should like their kids so it really shouldn’t be that much of a hardship to spend time with them to instill important lessons.
Harriet’s parents’ general disregard for Harriet is clearly the source of a lot of her problems. Harriet struggles with emotional regulation. Tantrums are common for her. When confronted with a negative emotion she chooses to lash out tenfold to punish the other person for upsetting her. She keeps track of exactly what bothers other people to deploy when needed because she assumes there will be a time they deserve it. She not only wants to carry her notebook around, she needs to or she sinks into an almost dissociative state. She literally cannot comprehend why others would be angry at her for misbehavior as it is impossible for her to wrap her head around being upset about what she perceives to be facts. The fact that other people are upset with her is cause for great anger as she believes she’s completely above reproach.
She thrives under routine, sticking to it fastidiously. Ole Golly leaving the job due to her engagement is honestly a large part of why Harriet has a meltdown in the latter half of the book. She has absolutely no one left who understands her the way Ole Golly did. Worse yet, there’s no one who even wants to try. No longer having that familiar structure to fall back on is unimaginably stressful for her.
Surprisingly, her parents do try to get her therapy when things reach a boiling point. Except it’s primarily centered around trying to fix her for their benefit rather than help her for Harriet’s own sake. Under these parameters is it any wonder Harriet lacks compassion?
Unlike some of the other reviews I’ve seen I was actually not upset with Ole Golly’s advice to lie when Harriet’s life implodes. For one thing, it's abundantly clear that Harriet’s parents coached her on what to say. For another, her advice wasn't only to lie. There are times when lying makes sense - think white lies. While you can argue that this was more than a little white lie, it’s not like Ole Golly can teach her all the nuances about lying to spare feelings all in a single letter that Harriet’s parents assuredly proofread before delivering. And to be fair, she did at least encourage Harriet to write real stories, not only rude commentary.
Harriet the Spy is apparently a milestone in children’s literature. I’ve read a fair amount of classics taking place in the time leading up to Harriet the Spy’s publication so I feel pretty well versed in this ‘genre’. Well versed enough to see how game changing this must have been at the time. In a sea of plucky, spirited girls who eventually conform to strict societal standards to become upstanding young ladies of respectable repute Harriet undoubtedly stands out. I’m sure it was refreshing to have a girl not have to tow the party line even if she was terrible.
To be honest, I don’t even think the fact that she is terrible registers to kids in the first place. Look at how many people said they loved this as a child only to be horrified re-reading it now. Or even if it does register that’s actually appealing to kids. Look at the success of Diary of a Wimpy Kid for instance. Greg is a jerk yet everybody eats it up anyways - let the record show I absolutely love Greg Heffley so I am not immune.
I’ll leave you with Louise Fitzhugh’s own words on the subject “[Harriet is] a nasty little girl who keeps a notebook on all of her friends”. If you can handle this holding true for 300 pages, be my guest.
One of my favorites growing up, I’m still re-reading my paperback copy from 1996. I love how wonderfully obnoxious Harriet is, and how unapologetic she is about it. I want to be her when I grow up.
3.5
It was very entertaining!
Also I can't believe I put this book on hold to read A Deadly Education. ugh
It was very entertaining!
Also I can't believe I put this book on hold to read A Deadly Education. ugh