Harriet the Spy - Hardcover

Fitzhugh, Louise

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385376103 ISBN 13: 9780385376105

Publisher: Delacorte Press, 2014

Synopsis

This special 50th Anniversary Edition of the classic and ground-breaking coming-of-age novel, Harriet the Spy, includes tributes by Judy Blume, Meg Cabot, Lois Lowry, Rebecca Stead, and many more, as well as a map of Harriet's New York City neighborhood and spy route and original author/editor correspondence.

Using her keen observation skills, 11-year-old Harriet M. Welsch writes down in her notebook what she considers the truth about everyone in and around her New York City neighborhood. When she loses track of her notebook, it ends up in the wrong hands, and before she can stop them, her friends read the sometimes awful things she's observed and written about each of them. How can Harriet find a way to keep her integrity and also put her life and her friendships back together?

"I don't know of a better novel about the costs and rewards of being a truth teller, nor of any book that made more readers of my generation want to become fiction writers. I love the story of Harriet so much I feel as if I lived it." --Jonathan Franzen, author of Freedom and The Corrections

About this title

Review:

More than 30 years before it was made into a movie, Harriet the Spy was a groundbreaking book: its unflinchingly honest portrayal of childhood problems and emotions changed children's literature forever. Happily, neither Fitzhugh's style has dated nor her themes become obsolete, and it is still recognized as one of the finest children's novels around. The fascinating story centres around an intensely curious and intelligent girl, Harriet, who literally spies on people and writes about them in her secret notebook, trying to make sense of life's absurdities. When her classmates find her notebook and read her painfully blunt comments about them, Harriet finds herself a lonely outcast. Fitzhugh's writing is astonishingly vivid, real and engaging, and Harriet, by no means a typical, lovable heroine, is one of literature's most unforgettable characters. (Ages 8 to 12)

Review:

A New York Public Library's 100 Great Children's Books 100 Years selection

"This is the book that made me want to be a writer. [Harriet] was the first fictional female character I ever came across who privileged her own truth above the expectations put on her as a little girl." --Anna Holmes for Bookish.com

"I don't know of a better novel about the costs and rewards of being a truth teller, nor of any book that made more readers of my generation want to become fiction writers. I love the story of Harriet so much I feel as if I lived it." --Jonathan Franzen, author of Freedom and The Corrections

"Harriet the Spy bursts with life."--School Library Journal

"The characterizations are marvelously shrewd."--The Bulletin

About this edition

• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0385376103
• ISBN 13: 9780385376105
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336