My name is Arella, my mom's name is Gelly, and we LOVE Suzuki Beane. My mom's name has been Gelly Beane since she was a kid, because she loved this book so much. Recently, while I was on the 'net researching a project on the 50's and 60's for Ms. Marsh, (@ LJH) I came across a site that mentioned Bleeker Street and had some photos of it. My mom got this weird, delighted look on her face and brought out a falling-apart (of course) copy of the book. I can't find the words to describe it. READ THIS BOOK. Okay, there's my story. ^_^

My mother bought this book for me in 1961 when it was first published. I was 10. Suzuki has been my "baby beatnik" idol ever since. The resurgence of interest in the Beat movement makes this a must-read primer for all ages! If you lived through the era -- get ready for a flash back.

I loved this book when I was a kid and although its out of print its worth the search! A delightful modern classic for the young at heart!

I loved the book The Long Secret because it was just exellent!Hup! You MUST read this!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Harriet The Spy books are among the best books written for this age group. Although, it is suitable for any age group. When I was a child, I read this book and loved it. I even started to mimic it. These are great books that no one should pass up. Definitely a must read.

In third grade my third grade teacher decided to read us the beginning of "Harriet the Spy." While she got as far as when Janie tells Harriet about dancing school, she had the sequel, "The Long Secret", in the book corner of our classroom, and only one person knew about it: me. Since that day in third grade when I noticed the copy, I've read it a hundred times if not more. Who can't resist the rough and tumble Jenkins family or Zeeney or Wallace ("Hup!"). Or Bunny or Agatha or Harriet or Beth Ellen? Your life will be changed after reading it. Trust me.

I got this book when I was a child and I thought it was a scream! I actually laughed so hard it hurt!

Beth-Ellen, Harriet's shy and retiring friend is the perfect foil to the outspoken, brash, wonderfully assertive Harriet of Harriet the Spy fame. Both girls have summer homes in Water Mill, Long Island, their families' retreat from Manhattan when school gets out. Beth-Ellen lives with her kindly grandmother, who has some rather neanderthal ideas about imparting information concerning puberty, but who is a nice sort after all.

Harriet has not put down her pen and notebook. Seems that somebody else has taken up writing that summer. Quotes from the Bible and parodies of Scripture are seen throughout the Water Mill community. Naturally suspicion turns to a summer girl named Jessie who aspires to be a preacher when she grows up. Chock full of Biblical knowledge, Jessie has a morbidly obese mother and twin brother and a cute preschool sister. There is no mention of a father.

Beth-Ellen, on the other hand becomes reacquainted with her mother. Seems that Beth-Ellen's mother was a society lady, preferring parties and travel to raising a child. Beth-Ellen's natural father left some years earlier.

The reunion is a bust. Beth-Ellen's mother, Zeeney, is just as flighty and superficial as ever. Her stepfather just says "hup" and loves martinis. They try to make Beth-Ellen over, straightening her hair and choosing her clothes and insisting that she leave her grandmother and come with them. Beth-Ellen refuses, wins her case and Harriet cracks THE case -- the identity of the Secret Writer!

This book is a riot!

Some years ago, I sought this book at the mall. The cover instantly got my attention, because my Harriet The Spy book featured the same art as this one. Once I realized it was a sequel to Harriet The Spy, I didn't even hesitate, I bought it right away. This book blew me away. I've never heard of a sequel being so extrodinary before, but it was. After I finished, I was upset, because I didn't want it to end! I've read it over and over several times. This book is well worth 5 stars! I would recommend it to Harriet fans of all ages.

Harriet's world filled my lonely life with friends and laughter. I was never so happy than when I was reading this wonderful story, and continue to reread it often. Harriet provided my over-curious, precocious nature with a confidante and a kindred spirit. Fitzhugh's perfectly brilliant and canny take on the trials of adolescence remains timely and captivating, from her vivid descriptions of Sport and his father, the DeiSanti family, Little Joe Curry, and Mr. Waldenstein to her poignant portrayal of Harriet and Ole Golly's farewell scene. One of the best parts of the book is when Harriet and Ole Golly are reciting Lewis Carroll "...and why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings." I will continue to treasure and guard my copy of this book, and whenever I feel like I'm starting to "grow up", I read it, and of course, The Long Secret. The menstruation discussion between Janie, Beth Ellen and Harriet continues to make me laugh until I cry.

Harriet M. Welsch, current spy and future world-famous author, is in trouble. Her secret spy notebook has been read by her classmates and now they all hate her, even her best friends, Sport and Janie. Her beloved nanny, Ole Golly, has moved away. Harriet is alone. Not even her daily spy route can help her to escape the reality of the situation because she has been caught--the worst thing that can ever happen to a spy. What is she going to do?

Before, life was good for Harriet. She ate a tomato sandwich every day for lunch. Ole Golly was there to talk to and to freely share advice. She played Town with Sport and helped Janie with her bizarre science experiments. Even awful Marion Hawthorne and her sidekick, Beth Ellen Hansen, were managable. But as soon as her notebook got found and read by her classmates, Harriet's world was turned upside-down. "They are out to get me," Harriet wrote in her notebook. "The whole room is filled with mean eyes. I won't get through the day. I might throw up my tomato sandwich. ...They may think I am a weakling, but a spy is trained for this kind of fight. I am ready for them."

And so Harriet M. Welsch, undefeatable spy, sets out to seek justice, and, if necessary, revenge.

This is a delightful and entertaining story to read. Harriet's notebook excerps are hilarious and help to demonstrate the confusing world of a maturing adolescent. Although the odds are against her, Harriet doesn't let it keep her down.

Harriet the Spy is an old friend who I come back to even now, so many years later. Harriet helped shape my world. She wanted to be a writer, so did I (and I might add, I succeeded, and I hope that she did too, wherever the "grown up" Harriet might be in literature land). She felt estranged from her classmates, so did I. Harriet and her perceptions on life taught me that it was okay to question what I saw around me, that it was okay to look at life differently. I'll always thank Louise Fitzhugh for writing a book that changed my life in so many ways, and that still holds up as a wonderful, funny and poignant story years after the fact.

"Harriet The Spy" is one of the best children's novels I've read, and the sequel, "The Long Secret," is as good if not better. "Sport," though, is not in the same league.

The biggest problem with "Sport" is that Ms. Fitzhugh doesn't understand what makes boys tick. She understands girls, and that's why "Harriett" and "Secret," both of which have female protagonists, work so well. "Sport" is not credible because the protagonist does not think or act like a 12-year-old boy.

What's especially exasperating is the way the author shows him gladly giving up his role as housekeeper when his father decides to remarry. I can believe his welcoming a stepmother, but not his willingly--indeed blissfully--subordinating himself to her, when for all his life he'd pretty much taken care of his kindly but bumbling father. No, there'd have been some TERRIBLE territorial struggles.

Sport's estranged mother, and her whole family, are excruciating stereotypes, so clumsily drawn that one has to cringe with embarrassment whenever they appear. The plot is trite and ridiculous. Sport's friends are superficially drawn and the boys are particularly unbelievable.

...

I have been a Harriet The Spy fan for a long time, and I knew there was a sequel to the first book (called The Long Secret) which I've read. But only recently did I know there was a book about Sport, one of my favorite characters from the stories. I got this book right away...I don't know what everyone is talking about, about this book being out of print since it was easy enough for me to get, right at the bookstore.
This book is about Sport's life after his last year at The Gregory School, when he has to go to a new school. His mother (the witch that she is) comes suddenly back into his life when his grandfather departs from the world...leaving alot of money behind him. Also, his father has a new girlfriend. ;)
Sport is a GREAT book, it's an adventure that's worthy of a movie itself, however I don't believe anyone ever made one about it. :/
I think that every Harriet The Spy and/or Louise Fitzhugh fan should read this book for sure! If you haven't read Harriet The Spy, read that book and The Long Secret first. ...

When I first moved to New York, I made it a point to go to the Olde Heidelberg (now Heidelberg) for dinner because it's where Sport's father takes his girlfriend, Kate, on their first date. That was three years ago; I read "Sport" sixteen years before that. (No one has ever accused me of normal behavior.) Suffice it to say, this book remains one of my favorites. Charlotte Vane (Sport's evil, avaricious mother) remains one of the most convincing--and terrifying--villains in children's literature and, in my opinion, Sport's father, the sweet, absent-minded writer Matthew Rocque, ranks right up there with Rhett Butler and Atticus Finch as one of those fictional fellows you'd marry if he were only real. And of course, Sport himself is a gem--funny, smart, and streetwise, he's the kind of kid we all wish we once were, or still could be. An absolute must-read.

I discovered this book when I was in the tenth grade. I had read Harriet the Spy, and loved Louise Fitzhugh's books. This is the last book that Fitzhugh wrote before her untimely death from a brain hemmorhage.

Eleven year old Emma and her eight year old brother Willie don't really get along. Their parents won't let them grow up to be what they want. Overweight Emma wants to be a lawyer like her father, while slim Willie wants to be a Dancer. Emma's father is against female lawyers, and finds Willie's dancing most irritating.

I really liked the part when Martha, the babysitter asked them if they wanted custard or ice cream for dessert, and Emma asked for both and Willie asked for neither. ... Other than that, this is a great book, and I would reccomend it to any teacher or student. Buy it at once.

Yes, it is a serious theme. It's still going on around here (stereotyping, sexism or whatever you'd call it), tho' I wonder if it'll be as bad as Emma's - her father being the one who's being "unfair". I like the fact that Emma and her three new "friends" realize what's going on (in a way), and that not everything becomes solved coz that's the way it is in real life. And it's still humourous in some ways... I think it is, anyway.
Emma wants to be a lawyer - her dad is against female lawyers. Willie (Emma's younger brother) wants to dance - but again his father is against the idea and would really like Willie to be a lawyer. And... well, that's all I'm gonna say!

This was a very interesting book, and it has kept me thinking about it for the two days since I finished it. I enjoyed Louise Fitzhugh's (author of Harriet the Spy) other books, and purchased this one solely for this reason, knowing nothing about this book. I am a third-grade teacher, and after reading this book, and considering carefully, do not not feel it is appropriate for elementary school. It is very appropriate for middle school. It was written in 1975, and some of the issues in the book reflect that--when American society was still going through the Women's Liberation movement. It is the story of two kids--a 7-year-old boy, and a teen-aged girl--in a black family. It deals with issues of not getting along with your parents, and finishes with the kids coming to grips with that, and ends by the kids feeling better about themselves and gaining self-confidence. The reason I feel it is inappropriate for elementary school is that these issues are dealt with in a teenage way, menstruation is mentioned several times, and the word "faggot" is used as an insult between kids in the dialog. But actually, while some younger children could read this book and understand it, a lot of the deeper meanings the book is intended to convey would go right over their heads. This would be a great book for kids and parents to read together and discuss.

This play has only one prop a large box in the middle of thestage that acts as a bed, coffin and judge's podium. Josh the maincharicter had just shot and killed 5 people at his school his friend Micheal, Katie, Matt, Jesse and Emily. The rest of the play he talkes to their gostes about why he killed them, what they are missing and how the rest of his life he will have to live with the memorie of their death. It also has flash backs to events in Joshes life that led him to kill. One such flash back was when he went on a hunting trip with his Grandfather and shot a dear. This play is very powerfull. It goes into the head of someone that had killed and must go on with his life after always knowing that he can never bring them back to life. END

All time favorite book as a child. Made my parents read it so many times the pages are worn thin, especially the big rock fight page. Excellent story behind playing with rocks, sticks and make beleive war games....NOBODY WINS!

If you have a 4 year old who just loves to chuck rocks at everything this book is a must find and buy!