Harriet the Spy 50th Anniversary Edition Free Download
Harriet the Spy: 50th Anniversary Edition
Author: Louise Fitzhugh | Language: English | ISBN: B00EX4E29Y | Format: PDF
Harriet the Spy: 50th Anniversary Edition Description
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 Harriets 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 shes 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
From the Hardcover edition.
- Product Details
- Table of Contents
- Reviews
- File Size: 3739 KB
- Print Length: 312 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0385327838
- Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers; 50 Anv edition (February 25, 2014)
- Sold by: Random House LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00EX4E29Y
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,052 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #50
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Childrens eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Classics
- #50
- #50
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Childrens eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Classics
When I was 9 I was finally moved up to the advanced reading group in my class. In order to catch up, I had to read Harriet the Spy in its entirety over Thanksgiving break. I was extremely dismayed, I had never even seen a book so big, much less read one! But, I devoured it in two days. I didnt live in New York and I had never kept a journal, but everything that happened in the book was completely familiar. It was, I think, the first work of literature I had ever read on my own.
Skip ahead 14 years. I reread this book in my local library on a lazy Saturday afternoon. I loved it, but I can understand the qualms expressed by some parents about the book The question is: What is the point of having children read - is it to present them with 2-dimensional models of correct behavior, or else to provoke their thinking, reasoning, and analytical skills? I think its very telling that a reviewer who gave this book one star literally threw it into the fireplace - this is the type of book that people who hate books burn.
People criticize Harriet for being rude or mean, but I think they are a little off base there. Harriet is a smart 11 year old, but she is an 11 year old just the same. Assigning adult motives and value judgments to her behavior is flat-out unfair. Shes just a kid, and this is how kids behave, not when youre around, but on the playground and in the classroom where they are discovering peer interaction.
In fact, this is a very moral story. Harriet learns that there are reasons for lying - it isnt being hypocritical (as adults often do seem to children) but rather to spare other peoples feelings - sometimes its better to be kind than to be truthful.
I have a theory about "Harriet the Spy". I suspect that no adult that read this book once (and only once) as a child remembers it correctly. For example, if you had asked me, prior to rereading it, what the plot of "Harriet the Spy" was, I could have summed it up like so: Harriet the Spy is about a girl who wants to be a spy. She spies on lots of different people and writes in a notebook, but one day all her friends read the notebook and none of them like her anymore. That is the plot of "Harriet the Spy". And I would be half right. Surprising to me, I found I was forgetting much much more.
In truth, "Harriet the Spy" is about class, loss, and being true to ones own self. Harriet M. Welch (the M. was her own invention) is the daughter of rather well-to-do socialites. Raised by her nurse Ole Golly until the ripe old age of eleven, Harriet must come to terms with Ole Gollys eventual abandonment. Ole Golly marries and leaves Harriet to her own devices just as the aforementioned tragedy involving her friends and the notebook occurs. The combination of the nurses disappearance from Harriets life (leaving behind such oh-so helpful pieces of advice as, "Dont cry", and the like) and the subsequent hatred directed at Harriet by her former friends makes Harriet into a veritable she-devil. A willful child from the start (punishments are few and far between in the Welch family) Harriet slowly spirals downward until a helpful note from Ole Golly gives her the advice she needs to carry on.
So many things about this book appeal to kids. The realistic nature of peer interactions is one. Harriet randomly despises various kids, even before her notebook is read. After making their lives terrible, she eventually has to experience what they themselves have had to deal with.
Harriet the Spy: 50th Anniversary Edition Preview
Link
Please Wait...
