Rating: 
Summary: A must-read for kids 9-12! Highly enjoyable.
Review: As many teachers do, I try to preview and read books before I introduce them into the classroom. This summer I read a slew of books and really enjoyed Harriet the Spy. It was written like nothing I have ever read before. Harriet is a different breed altogether. She is going through great changes in her life and is not even that likable as a person. However, she is very real. Her situations and her explorations are strange, unique and funny. I wish I had read this in the fifth grade! I really think that my students are going to love and enjoy it when I read this book out loud to them this coming school year. You'll enjoy Harriet's spying escapades, the characters she views and writes in her journal about and her outlook on friends and family. The other characters in the book are equally off-beat, real and hilarious. Harriet the Spy is a masterpiece of children's literature and one to be enjoyed for years to come I hope.
Rating: 
Summary: Spying and mean spirit
Review: Why would anyone think it's cute for a kid to break into people's houses to spy on them, and write down their embarrassing actions and words. At one point in the book, Harriet thinks her hardest about the meanest thing she can possibly say to her best friend, then says it in front of the rest of the mean-spirited kids in the book...
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best books ever written
Review: "Harriet the Spy" is one of the best books ever written, in my opinion. Harriet is an 11-year-old girl who keeps a notebook, where she writes down everything she sees, such as people, and more. Harriet is a spy, but when her friends find her notebook and read it out loud Harriet becomes their enemy. Harriet no longer has any friends, and has to find a way to win them back, with the help of her writing. This is a must read for everyone.
Rating:
Summary: A Timeless Children's Classic
Review: Louise Fitzhugh succussfully takes the reader inside the mind of Harriet, an unusually bright, extremely observant child with a sharp, sophisticated mind. When I was a child I loved Harriet and identified with her observations so much that I insisted that my parents call me by her name. The characters in the story are vividly and wonderfully developed; from the enigmatic Ol Golly to Harriet's mean schoolmates to the strangers Harriet observes on the streets in New York City. This book rates as one I still enjoy as an adult. Harriet gives girls, in particular, a refreshingly intelligent (yet human) heroine role model.
Rating:
Summary: Spy on this book!
Review: No matter how many times I've read Harriet the Spy, it keeps getting better and better every time. It's the most entertaining children's book of all time, and I strongly recommend it to everyone. Children and adults alike will wish Harriet was a real person. I know I do!
Rating:
Summary: My most-read book from my childhood
Review: Like most of the reviewers here, I'm a 30-year old Mom who read "Harriet the Spy", like, a thousand years ago. I rememeber I read it so much, the spine broke in half; and much like Harriet's beloved spy sneakers, I rescued that pathetic book from my Mom's attempts to throw it away. Harriet is a young girl who dreams of being a spy like Mata Hari, and takes her beloved journal with her everywhere she goes. She has a regular "spy route" (one person lives in an old house, and Harriet spies on her by breaking in and jumping in an old, unused dumbwaiter). As she spies, Harriet writes down all her thoughts and feelings of what she witnesses. Unfortunately, she also has a habit of writing down any feelings or thoughts, good and bad, about her classmates and her 2 best friends, Janie and "Sport". During a game of hide-and-seek, Harriet misplaces her notebook and is horrified to see all her friends reading it. I felt genuinely sorry for Harriet as she watched her friends and classmates torment her in class, and even formed "The Spy-Catchers Club" in retaliation for some of the nasty comments Harriet's notebook said about them. Poor, poor Harriet. I remember wishing I could jump in that book and give her a hug. To make matters worse, Harriet's beloved nanny Ole Golly, who has been with Harriet since infancy and is the only adult (in Harriet's opinion) who truly understands kids, is leaving her to get married. Harriet is left to make some hard choices, one of which entails swallowing her pride and facing her friends. I ended up buying a new copy of this book when my daughter was born, and I've read a chapter to her each night every 3 months or so. I'm hoping she comes to appreciate this story as much as I have.
Rating:
Summary: Harriet the Spy
Review: This book is a pretty good book. Although it would have been a lot better if I was in the fifth grade but since I'm not it seemed very little kiddish. The actual story was pretty interesting beside the fact that little kids these days don't worry about who did what and when. They care mostly about having fun and growing up with their friends.
Rating:
Summary: Girls CAN spy!
Review: I LOVE to spy, and so does Harriet in the book. This is an extreamly cool book. If you're a spy and a girl, this is a must-read. The movie is also very good, but not as good as the book. You gotta read it!
Rating:
Summary: And I thought I was the only one
Review: I thought this book was my own little treasure. I have never seen it on any 'must read' lists. I'm sure there are about 3 years of children growing up in Highland Michigan that never got to read this book because, I ALWAYS had it checked out. I remember that the book was huge (always sideways on the shelf) and how I identified with Harriet. I couldn't have told you the story until I started reading some of the other reviews. But it sticks in my mind along with Charlotte's Web, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Anne of Green Gables as favorites.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Quite There Yet
Review: Unlike most of the reviewers, I enjoyed reading "Harriet the Spy" but did not end up truly loving it. For one thing, I never liked Harriet's lack of introspection. She was always looking at people but never really seeing them as anything more than characters to write about. As an author, Harriet would have interesting people in her stories and all sorts of far-out, imaginative, creative plots--all pretty two-dimensional, for that is how Harriet saw life. She never seemed to understand another element in people, one that helps them get along with others and still be individuals. Many of the characters in this book were extremely fascinating. In the hands of another writer, their personalities could have been deeper and more profound. Louise Fitzhugh just makes some of them look like caricatures. Of course, in the end, everything works out (read that however you wish) and Harriet, as the protagonist, learns all sorts of valuable lessons. I wonder if she realized the meanings of those lessons, however, because she did not write about her reactions to them. Most of her commentaries are short and dry. She does not reflect on things. To be extremely fair, I have to say that the readers do reflect on what happens to Harriet, whether or not she herself does so. This is why many people have come away loving this book and learning a lot from it.
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