Harriet the Spy in CLCSC Pasadena Area Book Group

Jun 07, 2012 Nick rated it it was ok

Shelves: juvenile-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. A well-written book about a truly detestable character. Even the guy in Despicable Me was nicer. Harriet starts off as a spoiled rich brat who claims to not even know that she's rich, even though her family of three has at least three servants, and she apparently goes to a private school with its own drama teacher and only ten kids in a classroom. Supposedly eleven years old, she comes across as a precocious six-year-old, in terms of the way she behaves and reasons. Sorry, but it is not reasonab A well-written book about a truly detestable character. Even the guy in Despicable Me was nicer. Harriet starts off as a spoiled rich brat who claims to not even know that she's rich, even though her family of three has at least three servants, and she apparently goes to a private school with its own drama teacher and only ten kids in a classroom. Supposedly eleven years old, she comes across as a precocious six-year-old, in terms of the way she behaves and reasons. Sorry, but it is not reasonable for a child her age to have a tantrum, or to announce it beforehand.
The story is about how she observes everything and everyone around her, but in fact she uses this as a pretext to write down really nasty comments about everyone. Eventually, others find out and get upset, very reasonably so, which she doesn't seem to understand. Her parents and her nanny have somehow permitted her to ignore school subjects she doesn't want to learn, like arithmetic. Her obsessions are peculiar and serious enough that by today's standards, she would be at least checked for Asperger's Syndrome. That might explain her lack of empathy for other human beings, her difficulty understanding slang and colloquialisms, her anti-social behavior and her obsession with doing and eating the same things. If she doesn't have that, then she's just a creepy person who deserved the criticism heaped on her by everyone, from her classmates to the family cook.
I could have forgiven the author for the character if the story had a better resolution. Her "learning experience" of writing articles for the school newspaper showed that she hadn't learned a thing, and was only parroting back what might get people to forgive her. Limiting herself to only saying cruel things about non-classmates just isn't the same thing as learning not to say cruel things, and her "apology" to her classmates was mechanical and insincere. As portrayed, Harriet will probably grow up to be a gossip columnist or a papparazzi if she is allowed to spy and write, or a serial killer if she isn't. Her violent acting-out is serious, and never addressed reasonably within the story.
Even though this is considered a classic of children's literature, I would have trouble recommending it.
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May 15, 2012 Jen rated it liked it

Shelves: elementary-upper, childrens, fiction, clcsc-pasadena-book-group, realistic

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 18, 2019 Amanda rated it it was ok

I have to say, for me, this book has not held up well over time. Any warmth I feel for it is really the nostalgia for the movie adaptation, which I loved as a kid. There’s so much fat shaming in this book for kids that you almost can’t get through a chapter without it, and it’s not the only problematic thing about it.

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