Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh is a terrific story about an 11-year old girl who, spurred by a desire to know everything, spies on everyone she can and writes everything down. Although she is committed to writing the truth, she doesn't realize how hurtful her words can be until her private spy notebook is found by her classmates. Upon reading Harriet's harsh words, her classmates turn against her and plot her downfall. On top of dealing with all this, Harriet must also learn to grow up when her long-time nanny Ole Golly gets married and moves away. This is great book for kids who are coming out of a universe where everything revolves around them and are starting to understand the way the world works. Fitzhugh, L. ( 1964). Harriet the spy. New York: HarperCollins.
Picture Credit: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/232576.Harriet_the_Spy
Impressions: At first, I really enjoyed the rambunctious spirit of Harriet M. Welsch and admired her desire to know everything. After reading several of her notebook entries, however, I started to get a little concerned with how mean spirited many of her observations seemed to be. I suppose it really was due to the fact that the notebook contained exactly what she thought of people--nothing was sugar coated. Overall I really enjoyed this book, it was well written and humorous and of course, it ended with a good moral lesson. The only drawback for me was that although Harriet learned that sometimes a small lie can make people feel better, not saying mean things is an even better approach. For instance, as the editor of her school newspaper, she does write more interesting stories than Marion Hawthorne but the majority of them are gossip and even malicious (like the one about Franca Dei Santi). No one ever tells her to stop writing mean things about people in publications like the school paper where everyone can read them versus her own private notebook.
Reviews: "Harriet M. Welsch, an intensely curious and intelligent 11-year-old, aspires to be a writer when she grows up. Encouraged by her nurse, Ole Golly, she practices for this future vocation by spying on people on her after-school route and writing about them in her secret notebook. She is a keen observer of all that goes on around her as she tries to make sense out of life. When her classmates find her notebook and read her painfully blunt comments about them, Harriet finds herself an outcast. Even her best friends, Sport and Janie, desert her. Harriet has to find a way to win back her friends without giving up her own individuality."--Aaronson, K. [Review of the book Harriet the spy by L. Fitzhugh]. Library Journals LLC. Retrieved from Bowker's Books in Print.
"Harriet is determined to become a famous author. In the meantime, she practices by following a regular spy route each day and writing down everything she sees in her secret notebook. Her life is turned upside down when her classmates find her notebook and read it aloud!" [Review of the book Harriet the spy by L. Fitzhugh]. (1999). School Library Journal. Retrieved from Bowker's Books in Print.
Suggestions: This book is good for middle-school and late elementary school children. It can be used in a display with other books about spies or crimes (like Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys). Different spy gadgets purchased from specialty toy stores could be brought in for the students to look at and guess what they could be used for. Ordinary items like mirrors would also be included to inspire some creativity.
This picture book tells the sweet little story of Ferdinand--a bull content to sit under his favorite cork tree and smell the flowers. One day a group of men searching for the perfect bull to enter into a bull fight spot Ferdinand snorting and bucking and mistake him for a fierce fighter when in reality, Ferdinand sat on a bee. He is taken to Spain to contend with a famous matador but upon entering the arena, he simply sits in the middle and smells the flowers in the ladies' hair. This infuriates everyone and Ferdinand the peaceful bull is promptly sent back home where he spends his days sitting under the cork tree.Leaf, M. (1977). The Story of Ferdinand. New York: Puffin Publishing.
Picture Credit: http://www.popten.net/2009/08/rip-reading-rainbow/
Impressions: I vaguely remembered reading this book in elementary school but haven't thought about it (probably since reading it) and certainly didn't remember it at all. As I read, however, the sweet story and simple illustrations charmed me. Ferdinand's oddball behavior (for a bull, anyway) seemed to draw the reader in and make him lovable, no matter how strange of a bull he appared. I also thought that the mother cow accepting her son despite his differences added a loving sentiment, creating a mother-son bond for the reader to draw on. The illustrations were beautiful without being too cluttered. The depiction of Ferdinand was spot on--each illustration included a contented look on his face (with the exception bee-sting page). The drawings of Spain and the matador were also beautiful and I found the depiction of the matador crying in frustration humorous.
Reviews:
"What else can be said about the fabulous Ferdinand? Published more than 50 years ago (and one of the bestselling children's books of all time), this simple story of peace and contentment has withstood the test of many generations. Ferdinand is a little bull who much prefers sitting quietly under a cork tree-- just smelling the flowers--to jumping around, snorting, and butting heads with other bulls. This cow is no coward--he simply has his pacifist priorities clear. As Ferdinand grows big and strong, his temperament remains mellow, until the day he meets with the wrong end of a bee. In a show of bovine irony, the one day Ferdinand is most definitely not sitting quietly under the cork tree (due to a frightful sting), is the selfsame day that five men come to choose the "biggest, fastest, roughest bull" for the bullfights in Madrid.
Ferdinand's day in the arena gives readers not only an education in the historical tradition of bullfighting, but also a lesson in nonviolent tranquility. Robert Lawson's black-and-white drawings are evocative and detailed, with especially sweet renditions of Ferdinand, the serene bull hero. The Story of Ferdinand closes with one of the happiest endings in the history of happy endings--readers of all ages will drift off to a peaceful sleep, dreaming of sweet-smelling flowers and contented cows." ( Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Story-Ferdinand-Munro-Leaf/dp/0670674249)Suggestions: The Story of Ferdinand would be terrific to read in a story time circle. It would also be an example of how people don't always act the way they think we should act but this does not make them any less important in our lives. Conversely, librarians could create a craft for little ones by making flowers out of different materials and then decorating the library. For older audiences, It could even be used as a jumping off point for a discussion gender and cultural stereotypes.
