From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Tue, 02 Jul 1996 19:53:00 -0600

Micki Nevett's wonderful anecdote about being the first child to check out "Harriet The Spy" and the strong feelings that accompanied her reading of it comes close to my own experience of HTS. I read it when I was in fourth grade, soon after it was published. No one book-talked it to me -- I remember just finding it on the school library shelf and being immediately taken with the jacket and title.

As I was reading it I was absolutely shocked -- not so much at the content but that the author (an adult) knew so much about kids. Based on my reading of other books up until that time, it was clear to me that children's authors lived in complete ignorance of real children and childhood. But suddenly here was this person who seemed to know all about us and our secret selves. I remember staring and staring at the author's name on the cover and wondering who this Louise Fitzhugh-person was. How could she possibly know so much about us? And did other adults know things about us that they weren't letting on? HMMM. THINK ABOUT THAT.

KT Horning, CCBC UW-Madison
Received on Tue 02 Jul 1996 08:53:00 PM CDT