Third attempt to read. Still don't like it. But then, I don't like Catcher in the Rye, either. Or The Nanny Diaries. I just find it terribly depressing to read about ugly-spirited, self-centered, stupid people like this. And for a bit I thought it was going to go all Lord of the Flies and be interesting on a classic level, but no, the ending is a cop-out.

Or maybe I just don't get it. So I read the sequel, [b:The Long Secret|2995914|The Long Secret (Harriet the Spy #2)|Louise Fitzhugh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1267429023l/2995914._SY75_.jpg|922295] to see if hindsight would illuminate. It didn't.
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edit, Dec 2020

Now I'm even more peeved, partly at myself for needing Debbie Reese to point out the issue. See:

"'The crimson zoomed up Ole Golly's face again, making her look exactly like a hawk-nosed Indian.
Big Chief Golly, Harriet thought, what is happening to you?'

In the space of a few words, we see stereotypical depictions of Native people: the hawk nose, the red skin, and the use of "Big Chief" to describe someone with authority.

When I call attention to this kind of content in popular or classic books, someone invariably replies that there's a lot in the book that is important, and that those things are more important than the problematic Native content. Those who say that are pretty much saying that the impact of this derogatory content on a Native reader doesn't count as much as the others who will, in some way, be affirmed by the rest of the story. But I hear that a lot. Over and over, Native kids are expected to push through that kind of content, for the sake of the other kids. "

Choose a better book. ( )

Eleven-year-old Harriet M. Welsch is an aspiring writer who lives with her family in New York City's ritzy Upper East Side. She loves to write, and her goal is to one day become a novelist. She is encouraged by her nanny, Ole Golly, to keep a journal about her everyday life, and Harriet fills her journal with observations about her classmates, friends, and the people she sees in her neighborhood every day.

Much of what she writes focuses on her two best friends, Sport and Janie. Sport is a serious young man who wants to be a ball player or an accountant; Janie is very academic and aspires to be a scientist.

Harriet was very close to Ole Golly and is devastated when she leaves for good (got married). Her parents, who have been largely absent in her life due to both work and social commitments, find it difficult to understand Harriet's feelings of loss, and Harriet finds little solace from them.

Later at school, Harriet loses her notebook during a game of tag. Her classmates find it and read it, and are absolutely appalled by her brutally honest observations about them. For example, she states that Sport is like a little old woman because he is in charge of cleaning and cooking at home—this is because his mother left and his father is preoccupied with getting his novel published, so his best friend's observations deeply hurt Sport's feelings. Harriet's classmates, Sport and Janie included, form a Spycatcher Club whose chief purpose is to think of ways to make Harriet's life miserable. They steal her lunch, spill ink on her and pass notes about her to each other.

Harriet decides to try to resume her friendship with Sport and Janie as if nothing ever happened. Both reject her overtures of friendship so Harriet devotes all of her time to writing in her notebook, even writing during class as part of her plan to punish the Spycatcher Club. Harriet skips school and spends days in bed at home, growing depressed, and because she is not paying attention to her schoolwork, her grades suffer. This leads her parents to confiscate her notebook, but this only serves to make Harriet even more depressed. Harriet's mother takes her to see a psychiatrist who advises them to contact Ole Golly and ask her to write Harriet a letter.

Harriet's parents speak with her teachers and the school principal, and it is decided that Harriet will replace Marion as Editor of the class newspaper. The newspaper features stories about her fellow students' parents, and the people she sees daily on her spy route. It is an overwhelming success. Harriet also prints an apology in the form of a retraction, which placates Marion, and repairs her friendship with Sport and Janie, who both forgive her. ( )

Harriet the Spy Written by Louise Fitzhugh

Harriet the Spy has a secret notebook that she fills with utterly honest jottings about her parents, her classmates, and her neighbors. Every day on her spy route she "observes" and notes down anything of interest to her:

I BET THAT LADY WITH THE CROSS-EYE LOOKS IN THE MIRROR AND JUST FEELS TERRIBLE.

PINKY WHITEHEAD WILL NEVER CHANGE. DOES HIS MOTHER HATE HIM? IF I HAD HIM I'D HATE HIM.

IF MARION HAWTHORNE DOESN'T WATCH OUT SHE'S GOING TO GROW UP INTO A LADY HITLER.

But when Harriet's notebook is found by her schoolmates, their anger and retaliation and Harriet's unexpected responses explode in a hilarious way.

A counterculture children's novel that may be an acquired taste for some, like, for example, the Catcher in the Rye, but nonetheless unique and potentially avant-garde for its time. Its rebellious kookiness fits in perfectly with the estranged youth of the 60s, paving the way for kaleidoscopic Beatlemania, and Harriet's cocky stride on the iconic cover is the perfect bookend to Abbey Road. I didn't enjoy this novel much at first and thought its humour tasteless and crude, but when everything started to unravel about halfway through, after Harriet loses her notebook, I was forced to reassess my initial opinion. You don't really know the real Harriet till she hits rock bottom, and then you get to see just how emotionally blunted she has become as a result of her buried intelligence. Without a facet through which to express herself, Harriet becomes nothing but a vegetable (literally, an onion), and it takes Ole Golly's alternative methods to bring her back to herself. ( )

A re-read after many years. Good characterisation - the children are realistically flawed and the protagonist has difficulties relating to others and understanding why they are offended by the comments made about them in her notebook. In some respects, it is the portrayal of a privileged child who is neglected by her parents and has received her rather amoral values from her nurse/nanny. Crisis occurs when said nurse leaves and Harriet's notebook is read by her classmates. I did find the resolution a bit glib where she is rehabilitated by being given the class news page to edit. I'm sure parents wouldn't be pleased by the suggestion in her ex-nurse's letter that she should either apologise or lie - which Harriet does by placing a formal statement on the class paper that anything people read that upset them was a lie and is apologised for, when this apology is of course a lie in itself. ( )