Movies - Harriet the Spy

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	Movies - Harriet the Spy

Harriet the Spy is a novel for children by Louise Fitzhugh, published in 1964. It won the Sequoyah Book Award.

It was made into a 1996 film for Nickelodeon starring Michelle Trachtenberg. It was the first film made by Nickelodeon Movies.

Synopsis

Harriet M. Welsch is an eleven-year-old girl aspiring to be a spy. As practice for her career, she writes everything she encounters and thinks down in a notebook, and she watches other people. Her nurse, Catherine Golly (known to Harriet as Ole Golly), has encouraged this.

Harriet's observations stem from her family, nurse, school, friends and spy route. After school, she goes to observe a set of people who have no idea of her existence: a bachelor with twenty-six cats, a very wealthy but boring couple, an indolent woman, and an immigrant family that runs a store.

Her best friends are Janie and Sport. Janie is interested in science, particularly chemistry, and Harriet is convinced she will blow up the world one day. Sport is a very mature boy who takes care of his father and himself by cooking, cleaning, and managing the family's finances. The reason this has happened is that his father, as an author, has no regular work and is often oblivious to his family's troubles.

One evening, Ole Golly and her boyfriend take Harriet out of the house without Harriet's parents' permission. When her parents find out, they fire Ole Golly. Ole Golly shortly thereafter marries her boyfriend and moves to Montreal, Quebec.

Marion Hawthorne, a rich, popular bully in Harriet's class, steals Harriet's notebook and read all her secret thoughts to everyone. Some of what she said was hurtful to her friends, and Janie and Sport join the rest of the class in forming the "Spy Catcher Club." The club meets regularly to think up ways to tease Harriet.

The people on Harriet's spy route fare little better. The bachelor's cats are taken from him and he becomes depressed, the wealthy but boring couple receives a hideous sculpture to show off, the indolent woman is told by her doctor that she must be confined to her bed for the rest of her life, and the immigrant family's truck is ruined by their lazy son.

Hurt and utterly lonely, Harriet resorts to childish tantrums; her parents confiscate her notebook and make her see a psychologist. The psychologist tells her parents that she needs encouragement from Ole Golly and the ability to write in school. Golly writes to Harriet and gives her some advice that relieves her of some of her loneliness.

Harriet's parents speak with her teacher, and she is appointed editor of the class newspaper. The newspaper becomes an instant success. Things improve for those on her spy route as well: the lonely bachelor obtains a new kitten, the wealthy but boring couple manage to find some people to look at their hideous sculpture, the indolent woman, having received notice from her doctor that she really did not have to stay in bed, becomes full of bountiful activity, and the Dei Santis' "lazy" son becomes a very studious worker after he obtains a job he likes.

After some time as the editor, Harriet makes amends to her former friends through the paper, and all is well again.

Movie credits

Directed by:

Bronwen Hughes

Written by:

Louise Fitzhugh (novel)
Greg Taylor and Julie Talen (adaptation)
Douglas Petrie and Theresa Rebeck (screenplay)

Cast:

Michelle Trachtenberg
(Harriet)
Gregory Smith
(Sport)
Vanessa Lee Chester (Janie)
Rosie O'Donnell
(Golly)
J. Smith-Cameron (Mrs. Welsch)
Robert Joy
(Mr. Welsch)
Charlotte Sullivan
(Marion Hawthorne)

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Harriet the Spy ]

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