Harriet the Spy

Harriet the Spy, published in 1964, is a young adult novel by Louise Fitzhugh about a girl named Harriet who likes to spy on people. Two sequels were written by Fitzhugh--The Long Secret, published the year after Harriet, and Sport, which was published after Fitzhugh's death. Several other sequels were written afterward by ghost authors. The original was adapted into a movie in 1996 starring Michelle Trachtenberg as Harriet and Rosie O'Donnell as Ole Golly. More recently, an animated series was made by The Jim Henson Company for the Apple TV+ streaming service in 2021 and has had two seasons overall.

Harriet M. Welsch (she has no middle name and bestowed a middle initial on herself) is a precocious eleven-year-old who writes down everything because she wants to be a writer when she grows up. She keeps a composition book with her at all times, writing down her observations and general thoughts that pop into her mind. After school, she goes on her spy route. Every day she slinks around people's homes and places of work, watching them and writing down everything they do. One is a birdcage-craftsman who owns twenty-six cats, one is a rich crazy lady who stays in bed all the time, one is an Italian family that runs a deli, and a few others. She also writes down her observations of her parents, teachers, classmates, her best friends Sport and Janie, and her beloved nanny, Ole Golly.

One thing about Harriet, though: she's extremely secretive about the contents of her notebook. No one knows what she writes in it, and for good reason — very few things she writes in it, even about her own best friends, are flattering. They might be true, but they're uncomfortable truths. Sport is poor and does the cooking and housework for his dad, who is a starving writer. Janie is scary and wants to make explosive chemicals with her chemistry set. Rachel Hennessy, the assistant to the Alpha Bitch, has no father. Harriet's own parents are more concerned with their lives than with their daughter. Harriet writes down everything, not just the nice stuff.

So you can imagine what happens when Harriet's notebook falls into the wrong hands...

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The Harriet the Spy book provides examples of:

• Alpha Bitch: Marion Hawthorne. Rachel Hennessy serves as the Beta Bitch in her Girl Posse, which eventually expands to include every girl in class except Harriet (although Janie and Beth Ellen eventually leave).
• Anti-Protagonist Morality: One of the biggest examples in literature that's meant to teach a good lesson.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Shrinking Violet Beth Ellen stuns everyone when she grows a backbone and quits the Spy-Catcher Club (of her own volition), with Harriet noting that it's the longest sentence she's ever heard Beth Ellen speak.
• Children Raise You: Sport is the responsible one in his household, doing all the cooking and taking care of the finances while his father slaves over the Great American Novel. He's understandably hurt when he reads some of the comments about himself in Harriet's notebook, which hit rather below the belt.
• Crazy Cat Lady: The birdcage maker. He's got 26 cats, and the health department is after him. They get him in the end and take away all his cats. But then at the end of the book, he sneaks in a little kitten.
• Cycle of Revenge: Harriet's classmates rally against her in retaliation for her scathing observations about them. In response, she devises a series of humiliations and torments as payback for their ostracism. However, Harriet eventually realizes that revenge is not the answer; instead, understanding, honesty, and making amends are what truly matter. Likewise, her classmates learn to forgive, allowing them to reconcile with Harriet.
• Deadpan Snarker: Harriet. Ole Golly at one point even tells her "Don't be snarky."
• Disappeared Dad: Rachel Hennessy. Also Harriet, in an interesting way. When her father isn't at work, he's unavailable.
• Double Entendre: When Harriet spies on Ole Golly during her date, her boyfriend takes her to a German restaurant. Harriet knows Ole Golly hates German food, and expects her to complain about it when she asks her about the date. However, when Harriet does so, Ole Golly said it was a wonderful restaurant, and she tried several new types of wurst. Harrier, baffled, wonders if part of being in love is eating a lot of sausages.
• Eek! a Mouse!: Mrs. Plummer's reaction to finding Harriet in the dumbwaiter.
• Endangered Souffle: Harriet deliberately stomps the cake that the cook is making.
• Fair-Weather Friend: Harriet's friends turn against her amazingly quickly once her notebook is read. Sport and Janie take her back by the end of the story, but only after she apologizes for what she wrote about them.
• Humiliation Conga: Happens to Harriet.
• It's Personal: Both from everyone to Harriet and to everyone from Harriet.
• Most Writers Are Adults: Most of the sixth-grade cast exhibits a remarkable level of maturity, often behaving more like high school students. Harriet, in particular, stands out due to her introspective, analytical writing and keen observational skills.
• Missing Mom: Sport. His parents are divorced and it's mentioned that his mother has all the money.
• Mood Whiplash: The story begins as an enjoyable and humorous tale about a girl who spies on eccentric people with fascinating lives. Harriet has a good life with two close friends: Janie, a brilliant Mad Scientist rejected by her status-conscious parents, and Sport, an adorkable and witty boy. She is also cared for by her nurturing nanny, Golly, who fills in for her busy but loving, wealthy parents.  However, when Golly leaves to marry her boyfriend — believing Harriet is old enough to manage without her — the story takes a darker turn. Harriet's life shifts from happiness and security to isolation as a series of misfortunes turn her into an outcast. In a rare move for the time, her parents take her to a psychologist — a decision often stigmatized back then as a sign of "craziness". In the end, things improve, though author Eleanor Cameron once noted that the abrupt redemption, achieved through a single letter from Golly, gave her mood whiplash.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Sport's real name is Simon. Almost no one calls him that except Marion when she's in one of her Make Way for the Princess moods.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Harriet wears them even though she doesn't need to. There's no glass in them, but she thinks they make her look smart.
• Revenge: A big part of the story is saying how it actually isn't a great idea, by showing realistic consequences of it. It makes Harriet feel better for a time, but it also gets her in big trouble.
  • Upon reading Harriet's notebook, her friends form the Spy Catchers Club. Naturally, Harriet spies on them and feels sad because they're having fun without her and because she's the reason they're doing it - although it takes her a minute to realize that she is the "she" they're talking about (as they basically refuse to say her name out loud).
  • The kids give Harriet a taste of her own medicine by passing notes saying mean things about her, and always manage to place the notes where they know Harriet can find and read them.
  • Rachel Hennessy pours blue ink all over Harriet. The teacher scolds Harriet for not accepting Rachel's (fake) apology.
  • Harriet's classmates steal her lunch, so that she has to go home and have the cook make her another tomato-and-mayonnaise sandwich.
  • Harriet pinches Carrie Andrews. And then Carrie hits Marion, suspecting Marion (a notorious pincher herself) of having done it.
  • Harriet throws things at Sport.
  • Harriet throws a pencil at Beth Ellen.
  • Harriet puts a frog in Marion's desk. Chaos ensues.
  • Harriet cuts off a big chunk of Laura Peters' hair, so big that Laura has to "practically have her head shaved" as a result.
  • Harriet asks Rachel where her father is, and then tells her that he must not love her, since he doesn't live with her. Rachel is reduced to tears.
• Rich Bitch: Marion Hawthorne, again. Also Harriet in a slightly different way.
• Secret Diary: And what happens when people read it.
• Shrinking Violet: Beth Ellen Hansen is this for most of the story - she's painfully shy, disliked by her female classmates (particularly Janie) because she's so beautiful, and easily manipulated by Marion and Rachel. She finally grows a backbone and stands up to Marion toward the end of the book. Beth Ellen is also the protagonist of the sequel, The Long Secret.
• Snooping Little Kid: See title.
• Stink Snub: In the middle of class, Harriet receives a cruel note that reads, "Harriet smells." She then goes to the bathroom to check if she actually stinks.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Harriet eats tomato-and-mayonnaise sandwiches every day for lunch, drinks/eats egg creams at the cafe while on her spy route, and has cake and milk when she gets home from school. Also, Sport eats hard-boiled eggs for lunch and the cat guy has yogurt. (Until he gets his cats taken away. Then he has tuna.)
• Unusual Euphemism: FINK! FINK! FINK!
• With Friends Like These...: Harriet's notebook is found by Janie, who reads it out of sheer curiosity and then starts the Harriet hate-in when she doesn't like what she reads (probably that Harriet called her a Mad Scientist). In The Long Secret (the first of the book's true sequels), Harriet takes a very long time to solve the mystery of the notes because her best friend is responsible.
• You Are a Tree Charlie Brown: Harriet is cast as an onion (against her will) in her class's Christmas play. At one point she practices rolling around on the floor like an onion should.