Childrens Literature and Literacy

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Book title and Author: Harriet the Spy by Louise Ftizhugh

Introduce the book (genre and age range): This is a mystery book for children aged 8-12.

Summary: Harriet is an eleven year old who lives with her family in NYC Upper East Side. Her dream is to become a book writer. She keeps a journal and writes observations about her everyday life. Both her parents have been absent in her life because of work and social commitments. She loses her notebook and her classmates find it and hates her opinions and observations of them. She starts spying on the club and tries to think of how to punish them. She gets in trouble after doing some of the punishments that she had planned. She grows into depression and starts skipping school and her grades slip. Her parents speak with the school and she becomes the new Editor of the class newspaper. 

Favorite Part: My favorite part of the book is when Harriet gets to become the new editor of the class newspaper. She had fallen into a depression, her grades started slipping and she was skipping school. By giving her this job, she was able to come out of her depression and was still able to write.

Recommendation: I do not recommend this because it could teach children that it is ok to spy on your friends, lie and swear. It is not a good influence on children and it could cause them to act out and misbehave.