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Louise Fitzhugh

Harriet the Spy Hardcover – January 1, 1985

by Louise Fitzhugh (Author)

4.6 2,078 ratings

Book 1 of 4: Harriet the Spy Series

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Eleven-year-old Harriet keeps notes on her classmates and neighbors in a secret notebook, but when some of the students read the notebook, they seek revenge.

Reading age

8 - 11 years, from customers
Book 1 of 4

Harriet the Spy Series
Print length

298 pages
Language

English
Grade level

4 - 6
Dimensions

5.75 x 1 x 8.25 inches
Publisher

Harpercollins Childrens Books
Publication date

January 1, 1985
ISBN-10

0060219106
ISBN-13

978-0060219109
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harpercollins Childrens Books (January 1, 1985)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 298 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0060219106
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0060219109
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 8 - 11 years, from customers
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 4 - 6
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.05 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1 x 8.25 inches

Customer Reviews:
4.6 2,078 ratings

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Louise Fitzhugh

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Louise Fitzhugh was born in Memphis, Tennessee on October 5, 1928. She was the only child of attorney Millsaps Fitzhugh and Louise Perkins. After attending an exclusive girls' school, Miss Hutchison's, she attended three different colleges but never obtained a degree, and traveled in Europe, before finally settling down in New York City to pursue a career as a painter. In the late 1950s she and a friend, Sandra Scoppetone, began work on a beatnik parody of Kay Thompson's Eloise, which was published in 1961 as Suzuki Beane. In 1964 she published her first novel, Harriet the Spy. Although it received mixed reviews from adults at the time, today it is widely regarded as a forerunner to the sort of realistic children's fiction that would dominate the late 1960s and 1970s. Two novels about Harriet's friends followed: The Long Secret in 1965 and Sport, published posthumously in 1979.

Contemporary social issues figured prominently in much of Fitzhugh's work for children: Bang Bang You're Dead was a 1969 picture book with a strong anti-war message and Nobody's Family Is Going to Change (1975) explored both women's rights and children's rights. Ironically, it became the basis of the Broadway musical The Tap Dance Kid with the book's minor male characters taking a lead role, thereby completely overshadowing Emma, the female protagonist. Needless to say, this happened after Fitzhugh's untimely death in 1974 at the age of 46. After her death, three picture books were also published: I Am Three, I Am Four, and I Am Five.

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4.6 out of 5

2,078 global ratings

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LA in Dallas

Harriet is another of those brilliant, painful characters

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 24, 2022

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** spoiler alert **

I read this many years ago (1968, maybe?) after my New York City aunt, who always knew about the hot new books gave it to my sister. I LOVED it (So did my sister.) Harriet was brilliant, as was Ole Golly.

As is usual for a book I read so long ago, I mainly remember certain specific scenes. For instance, I remember Harriet, who saw herself as a future writer, spying on a writer who lived nearby. This writer lived alone and had a large number of cats. While Harriet was watching, he came home from grocery shopping, fed his cats, and ate some yogurt. This caused Harriet to question her career choices: She reckoned she could learn to eat yogurt, but wasn't sure she could endure all those cats. Although when I read it I was close to Harriet in age, I knew immediately that this was flawed logic Louise Fitzhugh had put in for comic effect.

The story is mainly about Harriet learning how unfair the world is. Harriet, to teach herself to write, carries a notebook in which she writes everything, even her most private thoughts. Her notebook is clearly labeled "PRIVATE". Harriet has never really imagined how bad it would be if her private thoughts became public, nor does she realize how thin is the shield of the PRIVATE label on her notebooks. Of course, her notebook is stolen and all her classmates become furious at her. This includes even her best friends Sport and Janie.

By the end of the book Sport and Janie appear to have reconciled themselves to Harriet, so we end if not exactly happily, then at least with some relief.

I am not sure why I liked Harriet the Spy so much. I think it was probably the originality of Harriet's thoughts. As in the case of her writer neighbor, Harriet's thinking was not always linear or logical. But it was always her very own, often insightful.

7 people found this helpful

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Truth and Consequences

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 22, 2014

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Written by Louise Fitzhugh and published in 1964, HARRIET is set in New York City and describes the adventures and personal growth of an eleven year old girl. Harriet lives on the Upper East Side, the only child of an affluent couple; they have a cook, they send Harriet to a private school, and they employ a nanny of sorts in the form of Miss Golly, an acerbic woman of sharp intelligence who is given to unexpected quotes.

Harriet is a self-regimented child who likes the stability of repetition. Her room must be precisely so. She always takes tomato sandwiches to school for lunch. She always has cake and milk when she returns from school in the afternoon. She then goes out to spy on a number of people—a rich woman, an Italian family, a cat-crazy man, and a married couple who consider themselves perfect. Harriet writes about them in her notebook … but she also writes about her classmates and her best friends, and the brutal honesty of her thoughts causes five shades of hell when her notebook falls into their hands.

When the world changes around her in unexpected ways, Harriet finds herself unable to cope. In order to bring herself back into focus, she must learn to take responsibility for her actions, to show a little tact, and to be emotionally as well as factually honest. The resulting story is remarkable. Times have changed quite a bit, and eleven year olds seem to be knowledgeable beyond their years, but Harriet is still a winner. She’s rambunctious, laugh-out-loud funny, and yes, inspirational.

Although it usually lands on “best of” lists, HARRIET THE SPY has been greatly criticized over the years. The most persistent complaint leveled against the book is that Harriet is a mean kid who deliberately attacks her friends and classmates. I find the accusation a little silly: Harriet is not so much mean as outrageously honest, and she doesn’t deliberately insult her friends, although they certainly feel insulted when they read what she has privately written. More to the point, the book itself is about personal growth, and Harriet’s foibles (which range from trespassing to a mild profanity to classroom mayhem) are in the nature of lessons to be learned.

Author Louise Fitzhugh was lesbian, and more recently HARRIET THE SPY has been accused of having a homosexual agenda. Harriet is a girl who often dresses like a boy and who behaves in ways that seem boyish; she must, therefore be lesbian. Her friend Sport is a boy who seems somewhat weak; he must, therefore, be gay. And then there is this business about the boy who always purple socks. Everyone knows that purple is a color associated with gays and lesbians. Well … if you are determined to read a “homosexual agenda” into absolutely everything, I suppose you can scratch one out of this. But I’ll think you’re crazy and so will most other people.

Now and then I like to go back to some of the books I read when I was a child. There are the Brains Benton mystery series, and the Oz books, and the whole Hardy Boys/Tom Swift/Nancy Drew thing. And they are all fun and enjoyable in their ways. But to say it flatly, HARRIET THE SPY isn’t just a children’s book suitable for nostalgia; it is one of the best books I’ve read of any type. Simple as that. The 50th Anniversary Edition, available in both print and Kindle, comes complete with the original illustrations by Fitzhugh and a dozen or so essays by authors who comment on the impact the book had on them. Strongly recommend … for children and adults.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

109 people found this helpful

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Llewelyn LaVista

Great book ☺

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 16, 2020

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I read this book when I was a kid, so I bought it and read it again - good old Amazon 😀 Harriet was born to well-off parents but is kind of lonely; she has no siblings and no aunts, uncles, grandparents or cousins. She has kind of on-tenterhooks relationship with her best friends Sport and Janie, and they are a bit twisted and screwed up like she is, because they have shortcomings of their own; they are all kind of latchkey kids. Harriet is very loud and loose, especially for a child brought up in the '50s and '60s - then again, she is a pre-teen - because she never got much one-to-one attention, apart from her nurse/governess Ole Golly who is an intellectual with a dry sense of humour and whose own mother is a loner. That is, until she goes. So maybe she thinks that if she is as observant as possible, being a spy and all, people might take an interest in her more and respect her more, rather than assume she is spoilt and pampered. Spying is all well and good, until all hell breaks loose, someone finds one of her notebooks and all her friends and classmates take her supposed observations the wrong way - awkward! Which results in them all picking on her at school and ganging up on her, and her wanting revenge! But then people start to realise that certain stuck-up, cliquey girls in the class have an even worse attitude, and then... say no more 😉

2 people found this helpful

Joy Fowler

Really good! Funny

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 29, 2019

Verified Purchase

You learn a lot of quotes in this book from ole golly!! (Her nurse)😂😂😂😂
I don't like the way she speaks but I don't think it should stop us from reading it.
Makes u laugh.

Leanne L

Great read for my 9 year old!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 6, 2017

Verified Purchase

I got this book for my daughter who is a reluctant reader and she thoroughly enjoyed it. She read it from start to finish which is unheard of. It certainly captured her imagination!

One person found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Lovely

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 11, 2020

Verified Purchase

My favourite book as a child, bought for my daughter, seems good quality

M. Rance

Great book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 12, 2014

Verified Purchase

If you don't know it, try it. And try it along with a copy of the early 60s film THE WORLD OF HENRY ORIENT. They are kin.

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