Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
I vaguely remember reading and liking this book as a child.
Harriet is eleven. Her wealthy parents leave her in the care of a nanny, until the nanny retires to get married. At that point Harriet penchant for spying on others, especially her classmates and writing brutally unkind things in her journal comes out. The classmates get angry, Harriet becomes angry, defensive, and then depressed. Harriet's parents finally check in and start parenting.
I really don't like Harriet anymore. And I don't like her parents either. In fact I didn't like any of the characters.
Funny how your feelings and perspective changes on somethings as you mature.
Harriet is eleven. Her wealthy parents leave her in the care of a nanny, until the nanny retires to get married. At that point Harriet penchant for spying on others, especially her classmates and writing brutally unkind things in her journal comes out. The classmates get angry, Harriet becomes angry, defensive, and then depressed. Harriet's parents finally check in and start parenting.
I really don't like Harriet anymore. And I don't like her parents either. In fact I didn't like any of the characters.
Funny how your feelings and perspective changes on somethings as you mature.
One of my favorite all time books . . . this spawned many a game of detective in my childhood.
(2018): Moo and I read this in one day this long weekend. We are going to watch the movie tomorrow, which I remember as being one of the rare as-good-as-the-book ones.
This was just as good as I remembered; as an 11 year old it had rung true to life. The author understood what it was to be a sixth grader, and didn’t write to appease parents. She wrote for her preteen audience. It made for hard reading at times because the parent in me wanted to snap Harriet out of her foolishness (or go back in time and snap my own self out of foolishness), but of course, we all choose to learn things the hard way. Harriet is trying to figure out life, grieving the loss of a parent-figure, and in the process hurts everyone she knows and ruins her friendships.
Reading it as an adult makes me think about the person I was when I read it two-thirds of my lifetime ago. Although I couldn’t yet express it, this story was powerful to me because there was so much Harriet within me. I was also hurting, and without knowing how to properly deal with that, ended up hurting others. I hope that I gleaned some sort of wisdom from reading Harriet’s experiences.
My favorite part is still when Ole Golly and Harriet start quoting Lewis Carroll. Got me all teary-eyed. I am excited to watch the movie, because I remember they nailed it.
This was just as good as I remembered; as an 11 year old it had rung true to life. The author understood what it was to be a sixth grader, and didn’t write to appease parents. She wrote for her preteen audience. It made for hard reading at times because the parent in me wanted to snap Harriet out of her foolishness (or go back in time and snap my own self out of foolishness), but of course, we all choose to learn things the hard way. Harriet is trying to figure out life, grieving the loss of a parent-figure, and in the process hurts everyone she knows and ruins her friendships.
Reading it as an adult makes me think about the person I was when I read it two-thirds of my lifetime ago. Although I couldn’t yet express it, this story was powerful to me because there was so much Harriet within me. I was also hurting, and without knowing how to properly deal with that, ended up hurting others. I hope that I gleaned some sort of wisdom from reading Harriet’s experiences.
My favorite part is still when Ole Golly and Harriet start quoting Lewis Carroll. Got me all teary-eyed. I am excited to watch the movie, because I remember they nailed it.
This book was definitely before its time. I'm glad I listened to it with the kids so we could talk about it but I wish Owen were a bit older because I know a lot of it went over his head (which I guess is good at this point?) I could not believe some of the stuff Harriet did but this book had me laughing out loud quite a few times.
I was racking my brain to find a children’s classic I’d never read for one of my book categories when I realized I had never read Harriet the Spy. I can only imagine what a breath of fresh air it was in 1964 to have a children’s book with a heroine full of piss and vinegar. Harriet is obsessed with writing down all her observations of people: family, friends, classmates, strangers on a “spy route” she’s developed after school. She’s from a rich family in NYC with a wonderful nanny she adores and rather ineffectual parents. When her classmates read her notebook, filled with unflattering remarks about even her best friends, she is ostracized until there is eventually resolution through a half-assed apology in the school paper. I think I probably would have loved this book as a child, and I appreciated it without loving it as an adult.
It's funny how different you read a book as an adult than when you were a child. As a kid I felt so bad for poor Harriet, what with her mean classmates invading her privacy and reading her journal... As an adult... Harriet is a brat. She is mean, spoiled, negative and has horrible things to say about those around her. However it's pretty obvious that, like most children, she is a product of her parents who sit around the dinner table insulting all of her friend's parents each night. It's really no wonder she doesn't write kindly, however she never truly learns that lesson, either! She simply learns to lie about her friends and continue to insult those on her spy route!
That being said, this book inspired me as a child. It made me want to write, and it still has that effect on me. However, I wouldn't want my child to strive to be like Harriet... just try one of her screaming sessions in my house...
That being said, this book inspired me as a child. It made me want to write, and it still has that effect on me. However, I wouldn't want my child to strive to be like Harriet... just try one of her screaming sessions in my house...
This is one of those books that I should have read as a child and would have read as a child had I not been turned off by reading from all the horrible books I had to read at school. That being said, if I was forced to read this book in school I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it then, either. But I read it first as an adult and I liked it as an adult but it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. Harriet is a very interesting character- very naughty and very nosy. Very rude. But her home life left a lot to be desired so I guess I can kind of sympathize with her. So despite all that I still liked her because she was interesting and precocious so I also liked the story about her.
The writing was amazing. The people judging lessons learned by the main character fell far short of what I was hoping for.
This is a book I reread every few years. It was very formative for me when I was 10 or 11. It has so many things to love--I was convinced I would move to New York when I grew up (I did) and Harriet taught me that it is okay to be smart when that was not a message I got.
I was obsessed with the film version of Harriet the Spy as a kid -- I even had a composition book filled with observations from my own sleuthing shenanigans. So I figured it was time to read the book that started it all. Happily, Louise Fitzhugh's most famous work is just as charming and endearing as I remember. The story of Harriet M. Welsch -- tomato sandwich lover and aspiring writer whose own words come back to haunt her -- stands the test of time. 4 stars -- recommended!