Harriet the Spy: the Unauthorized Biography

HTS was a special book for me. It got me writing more than actually spying, because (a) spying is a lot of work, and (b) I’m most interested in myself anyway. I have kept a journal pretty much since then (I’m …going to guess age 9 or 10). Found the sequel disappointing.

A couple years after I read HTS, I noticed a younger friend acting strangely and in possession of a notebook. A bit annoyed because after all that was my thing, said in my most superior voice “Oh, you’re in THAT phase …”

I had a notebook stuffed in a little hole in our oak tree. I was CRAZY about Harriet the spy. When I had to get glasses and my 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Jacks, said I looked like Harriet, it was the highest compliment! The notebook stayed in that tree until some critter started chewing on it, probably for nesting stuff.

When her teacher demanded to see the notebook that so preoccupied her, eight-year-old Danielle Prohom ran from her classroom screaming, “No! I’m never handing it over!” Knowing the jig would be up if all the teachers in the school read the copious nasty notes she’d taken on them, she tore the book into tiny pieces and flushed them down the toilet.

Katherine Dodds, “Harriet the Spy: A Hero for the ’90s,” Ms. July/August 1996, p. 80.