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crizzle 's review for:
Harriet the Spy
by Louise Fitzhugh
(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.