Harriet the Spy

Rating:
Summary: A great tale of how friends fall out and in again
Review: This story is about a girl called Harriet who wants to be a spy. She writes lots of notes about people in a special notebook. She spies on people who live nearby and she writes about her friends and people at her school. Harriet has a nanny called Ole Golly who gives her lots of good advice.

One day, Ole Golly leaves to get married. About the same time, Harriet loses one of her notebooks. Her friends find it. Unfortunately, Harriet has written some rather mean things about her friends and she finds that they all turn into her enemies and they do mean things to her. They even make a spy catchers club.

Harriet is very unhappy. One day, she gets a letter from Ole Golly who tells her that sometimes people have to say that they are sorry and sometimes they have to tell white lies so they don't hurt other people's feelings.

Harriet works out a very clever way of saying sorry to her friends and the story does have a happy ending.

This is quite a long book, and the type is quite small, but I read it quickly and I think that children aged 7 and over who enjoy reading would really enjoy this book. In fact this book is good for adults too as my mum enjoyed reading it with me.

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Summary: I memorized entire chapters: "Harriet" is amazing.
Review: My aunt gave "Harriet" to me when I was seven years old. I instantly fell in love. I took the yellowed hardcover with me everywhere. I memorized entire chapters. To this day, it's one of the best books I've ever encountered. It inspired me to keep writing into a stronger place. I was the kid with the notebook when I was little, estranged by my one-time friends, busy with a leaky fountain pen. To love is to truly accept. "Harriet the Spy" continues to amaze me. Truly the best buy for aspiring writers who need a little extra. Loneliness is everywhere in this society, and the vivid descriptions and observations of this eleven year old are so full of advice and wisdom that all ages can benefit with a little understanding. If you have not read this book-- do it. The loss of friends, growing up, being alone, coping are so usual that they don't receive enough attention. This was the book I plunged into when I was depressed. Find room on your bookshelf. This is a real keeper. Harriet is not only a very accurate character, but a loveable and intense young woman. We've all been misunderstood-- this is the path to understanding.

Rating:
Summary: The Little Spy
Review: If you were to look at Harriet M. Welsh you would see a fairly ordinary girl, but she is not. She is a spy. Every day after school she takes her notebook and goes on a route that takes her through the city. She makes stops on this route and every stop she records everything that she sees, hears, and does in her notebook. She not only does that, but in particular she looks in on people's lives at the certain stops that she makes, in other words spying. She has never been caught. Harriet takes her notebook everywhere with her and records everything. One day Harriet goes to school and discovers that when she looks to find her notebook it is not with her but her best friends. They read everything that she has written in the notebook and some of the things are about them, but many of things aren't very nice. Suddenly she feels that the entire classroom has turned against her, and there is nothing she can do. Will the great spy Harriet M. Welsh somehow find a way to sneak out of this corner? You will have to read this book to find out.
I think that this book is stuffed with great details and descriptions of the world that the characters are living in and of the characters themselves. It had an ending that was unexpected and very unique in its own way. I think that this book overall was wonderful and I highly recommend it to all that are capable of reading.

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Summary: The Spy named Harriet
Review: "Could Ole Golly have a family, how could she have a mother and a father? She is too old." Harriet the Spy by L. Fitzhugh takes place in Harriet's neighborhood. Harriet writes about her nanny Ole Golly mostly. Harriet is the protagonist who wants to be a writer when she grows up she writes mean things about her friends and family. Later on she looses her notebook. Will her friends find her notebook and the mean things she wrote about them?
Harriet the spy is funny and intriguing book because it makes you want to read it. The author shows this book to be intriguing because a 10 year old girl is sneaking into peoples houses and writing about them in her note book. You should read this book because it is descriptive. The author shows that because you can see an image of her sneaking into people's houses. You also should read this book because the style of the story is creative. The author shows that it is creative by using dialogue, things she wrote in her notebook, and even letters which help the reader understand the story better.
Now you have read the reasons and explanations, get out of your chair and read this book!

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Summary: Harriet - Delightful at 12, Still a Riot at 30-something
Review: I first read this book when I was about 12 - and found it funny, clever, and wonderful. I still read it every few years - to the same result. It never ceases to make me laugh and to contemplate the lessons Harriet learned on her "spy route" and in her other adventures. Harriets own notes are included, with hilarious observations and an occasional honest emotion - growing pains. The characters are smashing, with great names like Pinky Whitehead (a boy). I've since met people I'd swear were the prototypes for the characters. Every now and then I see myself in one, and it gives me reason to pause and say "Oh no! I remind myself of(insert character here)! I need to clean up my act!" One of my all-time favorite books - so refreshing. (Do, however, avoid the sequel, "The Long Secret." Atrocious.)

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Summary: Harriet the Spy sparkles
Review: I first knew about Harriet the Spy in 5th grade when the movie came out. I was entranced, enthralled and totally taken with such a moving film (no wonder it's called "One of the best children's movies ever!"), and I bought the book later that week - along with Fitzhugh's sequel The Long Secret. I became a "child spy" like Harriet because I found her lifestyle amazing, and Louise Fitzhugh is an excellent writer. Harriet the Spy sparkles as one of literature's best children's novels!

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Summary: There's a girl who leads a life of danger
Review: I have a theory about "Harriet the Spy". I suspect that no adult that read this book once (and only once) as a child remembers it correctly. For example, if you had asked me, prior to rereading it, what the plot of "Harriet the Spy" was, I could have summed it up like so: Harriet the Spy is about a girl who wants to be a spy. She spies on lots of different people and writes in a notebook, but one day all her friends read the notebook and none of them like her anymore. That is the plot of "Harriet the Spy". And I would be half right. Surprising to me, I found I was forgetting much much more.

In truth, "Harriet the Spy" is about class, loss, and being true to one's own self. Harriet M. Welch (the M. was her own invention) is the daughter of rather well-to-do socialites. Raised by her nurse Ole Golly until the ripe old age of eleven, Harriet must come to terms with Ole Golly's eventual abandonment. Ole Golly marries and leaves Harriet to her own devices just as the aforementioned tragedy involving her friends and the notebook occurs. The combination of the nurse's disappearance from Harriet's life (leaving behind such oh-so helpful pieces of advice as, "Don't cry", and the like) and the subsequent hatred directed at Harriet by her former friends makes Harriet into a veritable she-devil. A willful child from the start (punishments are few and far between in the Welch family) Harriet slowly spirals downward until a helpful note from Ole Golly gives her the advice she needs to carry on.

So many things about this book appeal to kids. The realistic nature of peer interactions is one. Harriet randomly despises various kids, even before her notebook is read. After making their lives terrible, she eventually has to experience what they themselves have had to deal with. Author Louise Fitzhugh is such a good writer, though, that even as you disapprove of Harriet's more nasty tendencies you sympathize with her. Honestly, who would want ink dumped down their back? As Harriet observes various people on her spy route, she writes her observations about them as well as about life itself. She hasn't quite figured out the differences between her life and the life of her best friend Sport (the son of an impoverished irresponsible writer) though she does briefly ponder if she herself is rich (the fact that she has her own private bath, nurse, and family cook never quite occurs to her). On the whole, the book contains a multitude of wonderful characters. Harriet's parents are both amusing and annoying, completely dedicated to their daughter and completely clueless about her needs. I was especially shocked by a section of the book in which Harriet asks her mother if she'll be allowed to eat dinner with her parents that night. Gaah!

Accompanying the text are Fitzhugh's own meticulous line drawings. They're fantastic and eerie. Combined with this timeless story (timeless in all the good ways) the book deserves its status as one of the best books for children. Read it again to remember. You'll find a whole lot more than you bargained for.

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Summary: Greatest book of all !!
Review: Harriet the Spy is an 11 year old girl who keeps painful but true notes in her notebook. Soon her notebook falls into the wrong hands and everyone in her class, even her two best friends, are against her. Then she must pay them back, but is revenge the answer? Or will she give up her notebook? And will put her life right side up?

Harriet the Spy is a great book with adventure, comedy and friendship. This is a book you can't put down, you have to keep on reading. But this book also shows you that revenge only causes more trouble.
To find out the amazing ending, read the great book Harriet the Spy.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This book reminds me of the days when I used to work for good old fidel, destabilizing governments, and being an all around bad guy.

Great book, I know that Trotsky and Lenin are also big fans of this highly intellectual and insightful book.

Rating:
Summary: a definite best-seller
Review: ok, i must say that this book is possibly the best book i've ever read. i have definitly recommended this story to essentially everyone i know, and most that have read it have told me how much they love it. this book has inspired me in many differant areas many times in life. i know many people find the characters unrelatable or mean-spirited, but that adds to the books greatness. the fact that this childrens-book doesnt sugar coat the truth (like the modern-day spy-stories such as "Spy Kids") is such a refresher! this book is like a window into the world of children where most adults dare not venture.