Harriet, the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Harriet M. Welsch is eleven-years old and writes down EVERYTHING
about everything and everyone in her notebook.
She has a spy route after school where she listens at doors, hides in
dumbwaiters and peeps through skylights to find out what people she has never met
are up to that day. She also writes
about all the things happening in her life and her observations about her
friends and those she considers enemies.
Since her nurse has left Harriet is not happy and things don’t seem to
be going right in her life, but then disaster strikes. She accidently leaves her notebook behind on
a run in the park and her friends read exactly what Harriet has been writing in
her notebook about them and now no one wants to be her friend anymore.
I was sure that I had never read this book but when I mentioned
that I was reading it to my mother she let me know that I had read all three
Harriet books during the summer reading program when I was a kid. I was a huge mystery fan, and apparently that
hasn’t changed too much!
I loved how dated the book was, yet how timeless in others. Children were allowed to run loose in New
York City in the parks and dad just wanted to relax with a martini when he got
home from work; yet also a girl learns loss for the first time when her nurse
leaves her to get married and how the truth can sometimes hurt more than a
white lie. It was a fun read about a
spunky young girl that would appeal to all children young and old.
