History Literature / HarrietTheSpy

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Shy, meek Beth Ellen Hansen, after spending most of the book under Marion's thumb, grows a backbone and joins most of her classmates in telling Marion off before quitting the Spy Catcher's Club. Harriet is impressed and notes that it's probably the longest sentence Beth Ellen has ever spoken.

* DisappearedDad: Rachel Hennessey (Marion Hawthorne in the film). Also Harriet, in an interesting way. When her father isn't at work, he's mostly unavailable. He does greet her when he comes home from work, and he tries to help her with her MethodActing homework for dramatics class. We see more of him in ''The Long Secret'' where he converses with Harriet about belief in God.

* WithFriendsLikeThese: In the book, Harriet's notebook is found by Janie (Marion in the movie), 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 friend Beth Ellen is the one who's been leaving the notes.]]

** In ''The Long Secret'', Harriet has long been curious about the Shark's Tooth Inn, the slightly rundown hotel in Water Mill. She overhears a conversation between Bunny, the lounge pianist (who's also the manager) and the owner, and realizes that the owner is Mrs. Plumber. Mrs. P appears later and ends up getting a colossal TheReasonYouSuckSpeech from Bunny for her control-freak attitude.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Shy, meek Beth Ellen Hansen, after spending most of the book under Marion's thumb, grows a backbone and joins most of her classmates in telling Marion off before quitting the Spy Catcher's Club. Harriet is impressed and notes that it's probably the longest sentence Beth Ellen has ever spoken. [[spoiler: In ''The Long Secret'' "beware the nice/shy ones" is shown to be a core trait of Beth Ellen's, and a key to the "long secret" itself.]]

** Also in ''The Long Secret'' with Beth Ellen Hansen's father, who simply got up and left one day and never came back (probably to get away from his RichBitch wife, Zeeney).

''Harriet the Spy'' is a 1964 book by Louise Fitzhugh about [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a girl named Harriet who likes to spy on her neighbors.]] 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 Creator/MichelleTrachtenberg as Harriet and Rosie O'Donnell as Ole Golly, which is notably the first theatrical film from Creator/{{Nickelodeon}}; as well as into the movie ''Film/HarrietTheSpyBlogWars'' in 2010. A [[WesternAnimation/HarrietTheSpy 2D animated series]], produced by Creator/{{Titmouse}} and The Creator/JimHenson Company debuted on Creator/AppleTVPlus on November 19, 2021.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Shy, meek Beth Ellen Hansen, after spending most of the book under Marion's thumb, grows a backbone and joins most of her classmates in telling Marion off before quitting the Spy Catcher's Club. Harriet is impressed and notes that it's probably the longest sentence Beth Ellen has ever spoken.

* ChildrenDoTheHousework: Harriet's friend, Sport, lives with his single father who is an unemployed, struggling writer. The guy doesn't seem to be able to take care of himself, causing Sport to try and keep house and look after him until he finally does get a job.

* FreeRangeChildren: In the movie, the children are only 11, yet (as in many other books from this period) they wander aimlessly around their neighborhood in New York City with little to no concern from their parents. The book may have been written in the 60s, but since the movie was clearly set in the 90s, it was a bit jarring to see.
** According to Kathleen Horning, in [[https://www.hbook.com/?detailStory=spying-louise-fitzhugh a 2014 article on Fitzhugh and Harriet]] for ''The Horn Book'', Harriet's spy route was not as widespread or as dangerous as a modern reader might think. Everything was relatively close together.

* JoblessParentDrama: Harriet's friend Sport lives with his dad, who is a struggling writer determined to complete and sell his book (he does). The drama comes from the fact that Sport is explicitly said to be poor several times.

* LaserGuidedKarma: Harriet's persons take a hamfisted approach on hearing she's being bullied. They show NoSympathy about her notebook, confiscate it when she starts tuning out schoolwork, and leave it in the cook's hands. After a day of this, Harriet plans ExtremeMeleeRevenge at school. Her mother is interrupted at a leisurely trip to the hairdresser's to find out her daughter put a frog in Marion's desk and cut off a huge chunk of Laura Peters's hair so that it has to be shaved. This starts a chain of stress when Mrs. Welsch arrives home and finds the cook screaming and threatening to quit, rightly pointing out it's not her job to mind Harriet; after Mrs. Welsch offers a raise to make her stay, she tries to talk to Harriet, who lies in bed. Her dad comes home angry about the five-dollar raise and the ice bucket not being filled before he hears about what his daughter did, and he gets Harriet's shoe in her face when he demands that she stop pretending to sleep. On top of that, it's implied Harriet got suspended for her actions given her parents say she's not going to school for a few days.
* LateToTheRealization: While spying on her classmates during Spy Catcher Club meetings, it takes Harriet a while to realize that ''she'' is the "her" they keep talking about.

* MysteriousPurple: There's a boy in Harriet's class that [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep she and everyone else]] refers to as "[[PersonWithTheClothing The Boy With the Purple Socks]]". She complains that he is so boring that she never bothered to remember his name and thinks that the only thing noteworthy about him are his socks. It's later revealed that [[AwfulTruth no one in their class]] actually knows his real name.

* 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 (see below).

* 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. In fact, her classmates use her love of tomato sandwiches against her later by ridiculing her for eating them and then by actually ''stealing'' her lunch. Also, Sport eats hard-boiled eggs for lunch, but that's all he can afford.

* UnusualEuphemism: FINK! FINK! FINK!
** 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" and he tells her that it's not a "proper verb".

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

* EndangeredSouffle: Invoked. Harriet deliberately stomps in the middle of the floor to mess up the cake that the cook is making.

* 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 makes her go on a ExtremeMeleeRevenge.

''Harriet the Spy'' is a 1964 book by Louise Fitzhugh about [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a girl named Harriet who likes to spy on her neighbors.]] 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 Creator/MichelleTrachtenberg as Harriet and Rosie O'Donnell as Ole Golly, which is notably the first theatrical film from Creator/{{Nickelodeon}}; as well as into the movie ''Film/HarrietTheSpyBlogWars'' in 2010. A 2D animated series, produced by Creator/{{Titmouse}} and The Creator/JimHenson Company debuted on Creator/AppleTVPlus on November 19, 2021.

''Harriet the Spy'' is a 1964 book by Louise Fitzhugh about [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a girl named Harriet who likes to spy on neighbors.]] 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 Creator/MichelleTrachtenberg as Harriet and Rosie O'Donnell as Ole Golly, which is notably the first theatrical film from Creator/{{Nickelodeon}}; as well as into the movie ''Film/HarrietTheSpyBlogWars'' in 2010. A 2D animated series, produced by Creator/{{Titmouse}} and The Creator/JimHenson Company debuted on Creator/AppleTVPlus on November 19, 2021.

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—his mother left and took all the money. 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.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Harriet enacting {{Revenge}} (see below) 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 their NoSympathy and the kids' bullying and hire a child psychologist to understand their daughter. The minute they do, they can help Harriet to find better emotional outlets.

* WithFriendsLikeThese: In the book, Harriet's notebook is found by Janie (Marion in the movie), 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.]]

* FairWeatherFriend: Harriet's two closest friends turn against her amazingly quickly once her notebook is read. (Then again, Harriet had written some very harsh things about). They learn better by the end of the story. Harriet has to falsify herself by saying that she "wrote lies" about them in order to win them back.

* 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 drinking 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. Shy Beth Ellen even fires off a TakeThat, snapping "I don't give a hang. I never wanted to be and besides, I ''hate'' bridge."

* FairWeatherFriend: Harriet's two closest friends turn against her amazingly quickly once her notebook is read. They learn better by the end of the story. Harriet has to falsify herself by saying that she "wrote lies" about them in order to win them back.