History Literature / HarrietTheSpy

''Harriet the Spy'' is a 1963 book by Louise Fitzhugh about [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a girl named Harriet who likes to spy on people.]] Two sequels were written by Fitzhugh--''The Long Secret'', published the year after ''Harriet'', and ''Sport'', which was published after Fitzhugh's death. Several other sequels were written afterward by ghost authors. The original was adapted into a movie in 1996 starring Michelle Trachtenberg as Harriet and Rosie O'Donnell as Ole Golly; as well as into the movie Film/HarrietTheSpyBlogWars in 2010.

One thing about Harriet, though: she's extremely secretive about the contents of her notebook. No one knows what she writes in it, and for good reason--very few things she writes in it are flattering. They might be true, but they're uncomfortable truths. Sport is poor and does the cooking and housework for his dad, who is a starving writer. Janie is scary and wants to make explosive chemicals with her chemistry set. Rachel Hennessey, the assistant to the AlphaBitch, has no father. Harriet's own parents are more concerned with their lives than with their daughter. Harriet writes down everything, not just the nice stuff.

* AndThenWhat: Sport brings this up after Harriet in the newspaper talks about the club and implies that "certain other people won't want to play a certain game and drink tea". Since Harriet is no longer a problem, there's no reason for the Spy-Catching Club to exist, and there's no reason to be ''playing bridge'' and drink tea. Rachel and Marion refuse to discuss the issue, saying that people who don't want to join can leave. [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Everyone promptly does]], except for Laura Peters and Carrie Andrews.

* ChildrenRaiseYou: In both book and film, Sport's father is a neurotic up-and-coming writer, and [[MissingMom his mother is out of the picture]]; Sport takes care of the housework and bills.

* MoodWhiplash: The story starts out as a pretty enjoyable and humorous story about a girl who spies on eccentric people who have pretty interesting stories, and has a fairly good life, having two fun best friends: MadScientist girl named Janie who is quite smart and fun, and an Adorkable boy named Sport, a fun and caring nanny named Golly who fills in her for her caring but busy rich parents, and is also rich. But once Golly leaves to marry her boyfriend (and because she felt Harriet was too old for her by now) in a pretty sad way, the story gets ''really'' depressing, with Harriet going from a happy and generally lucky young girl to a total ButtMonkey. A cascade of accidents and tragedies leave her an antisocial outcast, and her parents end up taking her to a psychiatrist (almost unheard-of in those days for a child, and very stigmatizing; it meant that you were insane). Things get better in the end though.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: After her parents confiscate her notebook, Harriet very quickly does several things she normally wouldn't do, [[InvokedTrope which the text notes]], which is why she immediately doesn't get caught:
** Pinch Carrie Andrews.
** Trip Pinky Whitehead so that he falls.
** Throws mean looks at Sport
** Tosses a pencil in Beth Ellen's face.
** Her ExtremeMeleeRevenge which Harriet has never done before.
** To cap it all off, throw a shoe at her father when he insists on talking to her.

** Harriet's parents may have a lot of money, and they had smarts in professional life (at least Harriet's dad does), but they are completely clueless as to what to do when Harriet starts getting bullied and failing school because before only Ole Golly would take care of their daughter. It takes Harriet's ExtremeMeleeRevenge to indicate that their methods didn't work, though fortunately a child psychologist is able to diagnose that she needs an outlet.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Probably how Harriet's parents negotiated with the principal during Harriet's suspension to promote her to become newspaper editor. Also how they kept the cook from quitting.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Harriet eats tomato-and-mayonnaise sandwiches every day for lunch, drinks/eats egg creams at the cafe while on her spy route, and has cake and milk when she gets home from school. Also, Sport eats hard-boiled eggs for lunch, but that's because it's all he can afford.

* MoodWhiplash: The story starts out as a pretty enjoyable and humorous story about a girl who spies on eccentric people who have pretty interesting stories, and has a fairly good life, having two fun best friends: MadScientist girl named Janie who is quite smart and fun, and an Adorkable boy named Sport, a fun and caring nanny named Gollie who fills in her for her caring but busy rich parents, and is also rich. But once Gollie leaves to marry her boyfriend (and because she felt Harriet was too old for her by now) in a pretty sad way, the story gets ''really'' depressing, with Harriet going from a happy and generally lucky young girl to a total ButtMonkey. First, one of the people she spied on, cat loving Harrison Withers, gets his 26 cats taken away by the Board of Health. Then she gets caught -- for the first time ever -- while spying. But the ''real'' trouble starts when Harriet loses her notebook in a game of tag, and her less than flattering notes about her classmates are read by them, who are pretty offended. The class (Sport and Janie included) start a "spy catchers club", bent on making Harriet's life miserable. Her grades then suffer, due to her putting more attention into her notebook than school. Her parents confiscate her notebook, which makes her decide to get even with the others, but this goes a little too far and her parents take her to a psychiatrist. She tries to apologize to Sport and Janie, who both reject her. Things get better in the end though.

* MoralEventHorizon: In-universe, in the film. The other students simultaneously agree that Harriet's crossed it when her notebook entry for Sport is revealed, [[spoiler: talking about Harriet wondering why Sport's impoverished father doesn't get a "''real'' job"]]. (In the book, it's her complaint that Sport's constant worry about his father makes him seem "just like a little old woman", and her vicious attack on Janie's devotion to a STEM career: "does she really think she could ever be a scientist?")

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Harriet eats tomato-and-mayonnaise sandwiches every day for lunch, drinks/eats egg creams at the cafe while on her spy route, and has cake and milk when she gets home from school. Also, Sport eats hard-boiled eggs for lunch.

Harriet the Spy is a 1963 book by Louise Fitzhugh about [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a girl named Harriet who likes to spy on people.]] Two sequels were written by Fitzhugh--''The Long Secret'', published the year after ''Harriet'', and ''Sport'', which was published after Fitzhugh's death. Several other sequels were written afterward by ghost authors. The original was adapted into a movie in 1996 starring Michelle Trachtenberg as Harriet and Rosie O'Donnell as Ole Golly; as well as into the movie Film/HarrietTheSpyBlogWars in 2010.

* YouAreATreeCharlieBrown: Harriet is an onion. At one point she practices rolling around on the floor like an onion should. Her father actually mentions Stanislavsky, then joins her on the floor.

* CanonDisContinuity: The movie is fine, unless you've read the book. Also, there were a few sequels written... [[BigNo by a different author.]]

* CrazyCatLady: The birdcage maker Harrison Withers. He's got 26 cats, and the health department is after him. [[TearJerker They get him in the end and take away all his cats.]] But then at the end of the book, he sneaks in a little kitten... [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Awwwww.]]

* MoodWhiplash: The story starts out as a pretty enjoyable and humorous story about a girl who spies on eccentric people who have pretty interesting stories, and has a fairly good life, having two fun best friends: MadScientist girl named Janie who is quite smart and fun, and an Adorkable boy named Sport, a fun and caring nanny named Gollie who fills in her for her caring but busy rich parents, and is also rich. But once Gollie leaves to marry her boyfriend (and because she felt Harriet was too old for her by now) in a [[TearJerker pretty sad way]], the story gets ''really'' depressing, with Harriet going from a happy and generally lucky young girl to a total ButtMonkey. First, one of the people she spied on, cat loving Harrison Withers, gets his 26 cats taken away by the Board of Health. Then she gets caught -- for the first time ever -- while spying. But the ''real'' trouble starts when Harriet loses her notebook in a game of tag, and her less than flattering notes about her classmates are read by them, who are pretty offended. The class (Sport and Janie included) start a "spy catchers club", bent on making Harriet's life miserable. Her grades then suffer, due to her putting more attention into her notebook than school. Her parents confiscate her notebook, which makes her decide to get even with the others, but this goes a little too far and her parents take her to a psychiatrist. She tries to apologize to Sport and Janie, who both reject her. Things get better in the end though.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/harrietthespy.jpg
[[caption-width:244:What is she writing? Wouldn't you like to know!]]

* OnlySaneMan: Ole Golly; she understands Harriet's need to be a good writer while also understanding how the world works, hence why she encourages Harriet's spying. When she finally leaves to get married, things go FromABadToWorse for Harriet.

** Harriet's parents may have a lot of money, and they had smarts in professional life (at least Harriet's dad does), but they are completely clueless as to what to do when Harriet starts getting bullied and failing school because before only Ole Golly would take care of their daughter. It takes Harriet's ExtremeRevengeMelee to indicate that their methods didn't work, though fortunately a child psychologist is able to diagnose that she needs an outlet.

* AndThenWhat: Sport brings this up after Harriet in the newspaper talks about the club and implies that "certain other people won't want to play a certain game and drink tea". Since Harriet is no longer a problem, there's no reason for the Spy-Catching Club to exist, and there's no reason to be ''playing bridge'' and drink tea. Rachel and Marion refuse to discuss the issue, saying that people who don't want to join can leave. [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Everyone promptly does]], except Laura Peters and Carrie Andrews.

* KarmaHoudini: Harriet's teacher, who bullies her as badly as (and in some cases ''worse'' than) the children. She is never caught by another adult and therefore never punished for her actions, though Harriet causing "bedlam" by putting a frog in Marion Hawthorne's desk sends her on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: Harriet enacting {{Revenge}} on the meaner classmates bullying her after writing a list of what to do to each member of the Spy-Catching Club. The best part? Though it's implied that she gets suspended, her parents ''finally'' get the memo that she's acting out in response to the NoSympathy and bullying and hire a child psychologist to understand their daughter. The minute they do, they can help Harriet with her outlets.

* NoSympathy: Harriet gets none after her notebook is read, even though she's subject to severe bullying and several pranks. It was quite cathartic to read of her KickTheSonOfABitch moments during her {{Revenge}} and for the parents to finally understand that she needs her notebook and she needs to write when confiscating the book only makes her go on a RevengeMelee.

** Harriet's parents may have a lot of money, and they had smarts in professional life (at least Harriet's dad does), but they are completely clueless as to what to do when Harriet starts getting bullied and failing school because before only Ole Golly would take care of their daughter. It takes Harriet's RevengeMelee to indicate that their methods didn't work, though fortunately a child psychologist is able to diagnose that she needs an outlet.
** Sport's dad is a nice guy, but he has no idea how to take care of a kid or even how to manage a proper paycheck.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Subverted with Harriet's teacher, played straight with the principal who works with Harriet's parents to find a proper writing outlet for Harriet.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Probably how Harriet's parents negotiated with the principal during Harriet's suspension to promote her to become newspaper editor.

* AndThenWhat: Sport brings this up after Harriet in the newspaper talks about the club and implies that "certain other people won't want to play a certain game and drink tea". Since Harriet is no longer a problem, there's no reason for the Spy-Catching Club to exist,

* CrazyCatLady: The birdcage maker. He's got 26 cats, and the health department is after him. [[TearJerker They get him in the end and take away all his cats.]] But then at the end of the book, he sneaks in a little kitten... [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Awwwww.]]

** Harriet picked that up from her father, who works for an advertising agency; in a barrage early in the story, it's clear he's saying finks so as to avoid saying "fuckers".

* HumiliationConga: Happens to Harriet.

* KarmaHoudini: Harriet's teacher, who bullies her as badly as (and in some cases ''worse'' than) the children. She is never caught by another adult and therefore never punished for her actions.

* MoodWhiplash: The story starts out as a pretty enjoyable and humorous story about a girl who spies on eccentric people who have pretty interesting stories, and has a fairly good life, having two fun best friends: MadScientist girl named Janie who is quite smart and fun, and an Adorkable boy named Sport, a fun and caring nanny named Gollie who fills in her for her caring but busy rich parents, and is also rich. But once Gollie leaves to marry her boyfriend (and because she felt Harriet was too old for her by now) in a [[TearJerker pretty sad way]], the story gets ''really'' depressing, with Harriet going from a happy and generally lucky young girl to a total ButtMonkey. First, one of the people she spied on, cat loving Harrison Withers, gets his 26 cats taken away by the Board of Health. Then she gets caught -- for the first time ever -- while spying. But the ''real'' trouble starts when Harriet loses her notebook in a game of tag, and her less than flattering notes about her classmates are read by them, who are pretty offended. The class (Sport and Janie included) start a "spy catchers club", bent on making Harriet's life miserable. Her grades then suffer, due to her putting more attention into her notebook than school. Her parents confiscate her notebook and take her to a psychiatrist. Then she decides to get even with the others, but this goes a little too far, making them even more angry. She tries to apologize to Sport and Janie, who both reject her. Things get better in the end though.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Subverted with Harriet's teacher.

** Harriet throws things at Sport.

* ChildrenRaiseYou: Particularly in the film, being that Sport's father is a neurotic up-and-coming writer, and [[MissingMom his mother is out of the picture]], Sport takes care of the housework and bills.

* KarmaHoudini: Harriet's teacher, who bullies her as badly as (and in some cases ''worse'' than) the children. She is never caught by another adult and their for never punished for her actions.

* MoodWhiplash: The story starts out as a pretty enjoyable and humorous story about a girl who spies on eccentric people who have pretty interesting stories, and has a fairly good life, having two fun best friends: MadScientist girl named Janie who is quite smart and fun, and an Adorkable boy named Sport, a fun and caring nanny named Gollie who fills in her for her caring but busy rich parents, and is also rich. But once Gollie leaves to marry her boyfriend (and because she felt Harriet was too old for her by now) in a [[TearJerker pretty sad way]], the story gets ''really'' depressing, with Harriet going from a happy and generally lucky young girl to a total ButtMonkey. First, one of the people she spied on, a cat loving man gets his cats taken away because there are too many. Then she gets caught while spying for once (something that never happened before to her). But the ''real'' trouble starts when Harriet loses her notebook in a game of tag, and her less than flattering notes about her classmates are read and discovered by them, who are pretty offended. The class (Sport and Janie included) start a "spy catchers club", bent on making Harriet's life miserable. Her grades then suffer, due to her putting more attention into her notebook than school, and has her notebook confiscated by her parents. Then she decides to get even with the others, but this goes a little too far, making them even more angry. She tries to apologize to Sport and Janie, who both reject her. Things get better in the end though.
* MoralEventHorizon: In-universe. The other students simultaneously agree that Harriet's crossed it when her notebook entry for Sport is revealed, [[spoiler: talking about Harriet wondering why Sport's impoverished father doesn't get a "''real'' job"]].

* MoodWhiplash: The story starts out as a pretty enjoyable and humorous story about a girl who spies on eccentric people who have pretty interesting stories, and has a fairly good life, having two fun best friends: MadScientist girl named Janie who is quite smart and fun, and an Adorkable boy named Sport, a fun and caring nanny named Gollie who fills in her for her caring but busy rich parents, and is also rich. But once Gollie leaves to marry her boyfriend (and because she felt Harriet was too old for her by now) in a [[TearJerker pretty sad way]], the story gets ''really'' depressing, with Harriet going from a happy and generally lucky young girl to a total ButtMonkey. First, one of the people she spied on, a cat loving man gets his cats taken away because there are too many. Then she gets caught while spying for once (something that never happened before to her). But the ''real'' trouble starts when Harriet loses her notebook in a game of tag, and her less than flattering notes about her classmates are read and discovered by them, who are pretty offended. The class (Sport and Janie included) start a "spy catchers club", bent on making Harriet's life miserable. Her grades then suffer, due to her putting more attention into her notebook than school, and has her notebook confiscated by her parents. Then she decides to get even with the others, but this goes a little too far, making them even more angry. She tries to apologize to Sport and Janie, who both reject her. Things get better in the end though..

* DawsonCasting: Actually averted in the movie; Michelle Trachtenberg was the same age as Harriet.

Harriet the Spy is a 1963 book by Louise Fitzhugh about [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a girl named Harriet who likes to spy on people.]] Two sequels were written by Fitzhugh--''The Long Secret'', published the year after ''Harriet'', and ''Sport'', which was published after Fitzhugh's death. Several other sequels were written afterward by ghost authors. The original was adapted into a movie in 1996 starring Michelle Trachtenberg as Harriet and Rosie O'Donnell as Ole Golly.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Harriet eats tomato-and-mayonnaise sandwiches every day for lunch, drinks/eats egg creams at the cafe while on her spy route, and has cake and milk when she gets home from school. Also, Sport eats hard-boiled eggs for lunch and the cat guy has yogurt. (Until he gets his cats taken away. Then he has tuna.)
** The cat guy doesn't eat yogurt because he likes it, he eats it because it's all he can afford after paying to care for all the cats.

* KarmaHoudini: Harriet's teacher, who bullies her as bad as (and in some cases ''worse'') the children. She is never caught by another adult and their for never punished for her actions.

** Rachel Hennessey pours blue ink all over Harriet. The teacher makes ''Harriet'' apologize.

* WithFriendsLikeThese: In the book, Harriet's notebook is found by Janie, who reads it out of sheer curiosity, shows it to the others, and then starts the Harriet hate-in when she doesn't like what she reads (probably that Harriet called her a MadScientist). In ''The Long Secret'' (the first of the book's true sequels), Harriet takes a very long time to solve the mystery of the notes because [[spoiler: her best friend is responsible.]]

* HeyItsThatGuy: Hey it's [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Dawn Summers]] as Harriet and [[ALeageOfTheirOwn Doris Murphy]] as Ol' Golly.
** And, in the upcoming ''Harriet The Spy: Blog Wars'' playing the role of "Tim" is....[[BigWolfOnCampus Merton Dingle!]] We haven't seen ''you'' in a long time!
** From blog wars we also have [[WizardsOfWaverlyPlace Jennifer Stone]] and [[TheLatestBuzz Vanessa Morgan]].

* TheFilmOfTheBook

!!''HarrietTheSpy'' provides examples of: