What’s Rachel Reading? Harriet the Spy

What’s up with the children’s book this week? Well… Harriet the Spy (originally published in 1964) was always one of my own favorite books as a kid. My original cheap paperback copy literally fell apart in my hands years ago, but a while back we picked up the exact edition shown above at Goodwill for a whopping $.69. So worth it! Mr. 9 and I have been reading a chapter before bed every night, and he loves it almost as much as I did. You know it’s a good book when it stands the test of time, and this weekend we’re also planning to pick up the DVD at the library (which I’ve never seen, so we’ll experience that as new together!).

If you’ve never read Harriet The Spy, Harriet is a precocious eleven-year-old self-described spy who writes down all of her observations and musings on life in an ever present notebook — including sometimes painfully honest descriptions of and musings on her classmates. When they get hold of her notebook and read her secret thoughts, including these brutally sincere descriptions, Harriet suddenly finds herself an outcast among her peers. The story that unfolds from there perfectly captures Harriet’s struggle to remain fundamentally true to herself, while also realizing the impact her words can have on others and finding a common ground on which to connect.

I was listening to an NPR interview with Lin-Manuel Miranda a couple of weeks ago, where he said: “I mean, I think if you want to make a recipe for making a writer, have them feel a little out of place everywhere, have them be an observer kind of all the time. And that’s a great way to make a writer.” And that’s a great way to put it: Harriet the observer is never going to fit in perfectly. She is set in her routines, dresses like a boy, and makes observations beyond her years, but the events that unfold show her growth as a writer and a person — and the realization that acceptance goes both ways.

Harriet is first and foremost a great story, but it’s also one of the books that made me want to be a writer and helped me navigate the challenges of moving from childhood to young adulthood.

The case for reading children’s and teen fiction

Did you guys read this Slate article a few years ago? In “Against YA,” Ruth Graham argues that adults should be embarrassed to be seen reading young adult fiction. Part of her argument is that grown-ups should have grown-out of the teen section, and since they don’t bring the same perspective to these books as a teen would, adults who read young adult novels are indulging in maudlin nostalgia and escapism at the expense of what they really should be reading (AKA: literary fiction).

This kind of thing is hard to quantify, though I will say that my own life as a YA reader way back in the early 1990s was hardly wanting for either satisfaction or sophistication. Books like The Westing Game and Tuck Everlasting provided some of the most intense reading experiences of my life. I have no urge to go back and re-read them, but those books helped turn me into the reader I am today. It’s just that today, I am a different reader.

It’s interesting that these are some of the same arguments leveled against women’s fiction, which Jennifer Weiner talks about in Hungry Heart. But further: I’d argue that it’s precisely because we are different readers as adults that young adult (and children’s) fiction has something new to offer, when read from an adult perspective. Of course I’m not going to read Harriet the same way as I did as a child, but I’m picking up on subtexts in the book that I never did as a child — and re-reading it as an adult offers the chance to look back at how this and other formative books of my childhood shaped the person I am today. The best teen and children’s novels have something to offer every reader, from Harry Potter to Ender’s Game to, yes: Harriet the Spy. And the best teen and children’s novels are worth both reading and re-reading.

What are you reading this week?

What have you been reading lately? Tell us about it! ?