The Long Secret (Harriet the Spy, Book 2)

LOUISE FITZHUGH

Goodreads synopsis: Who's been writing those strange notes popping up all over town? Notes like, "How sharper than a serpent's tooth is a rotten parent" or "You need more pull to get a rich man into Heaven than to get a camel through the eye of a needle"

Harriet the Spy is going to catch the mysterious note leaver if it takes her all summer! It sounds like someone religious, she reasons, like The Preacher, or his fanatical sidekick, Jessie Mae, who brings her Bible to the beach. Harriet's friend Beth Ellen is no help at all--her mother has just returned from seven years in Europe and is driving Beth Ellen crazy. But Harriet's doing fine on her own. And the secret she finally uncovers is going to surprise everyone

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, HarperTrophy, 1965.

How acquired: Via Book Mooch.

First line: The notes were appearing everywhere.

My thoughts: I read and loved HARRIET THE SPY when I was a kid, and upon reading it again as an adult not too long ago I still very much enjoyed it. But I don't remember reading this book, or the next book, SPORT, when I was younger.

In this book, it's summer and Harriet and her mother are staying at the beach, while her father comes out on the weekends. Janie was Harriet's best friend in the first book, but Harriet muses at one point about how during the summers at the beach Beth Ellen is her best friend. Beth Ellen is very quiet and demure, and she sometimes seems weary of Harriet's company, yet at other times she welcomes Harriet's brash enthusiasm.

The book starts out with Harriet still spying on people, while Beth Ellen follows along in her wake, and determined to figure out who is leaving mysterious notes all around town, notes that are vaguely insulting to the person who receives them. But somewhere along the way the focus shifts to Beth Ellen, and ultimately this was more her book than Harriet's. Beth Ellen lives with her grandmother. One day her grandmother excitedly informs her that her mother, Zeeney, is coming home. Beth Ellen doesn't know her flighty mother, and is very apprehensive about meeting her. And rightly so. Zeeney is a flat out bitch who cares about nothing other than having money, having expensive stuff, and running around partying and being seen.

I loved the friendship between Harriet and Beth Ellen, and watching as both girls learn a bit about themselves and each other. This was a quite enjoyable little story.

“I was born in October,” said Harriet as though October were the only really satisfactory month to be born in.

Me too, Harriet, me too!