"The protagonist and anti-heroine of Louise Fitzhugh's masterpiece Harriet the Spy, first published first in 1964, continues to mesmerize generation after generation of readers. Harriet is an erratic, unsentimental, and endearing prototype--someone very like the woman who dreamed her up, author and artist Louise Fitzhugh. Born in 1928, Fitzhugh was raised in a wealthy home in segregated Memphis, and she escaped her cloistered world and made a beeline...

When her married nanny returns to take care of her while her parents are away in France, Harriet hears something curious that makes her think Ole Golly is in some sort of trouble.

While at the beach for the summer, Harriet tries to uncover the author of mysterious religious notes that appear all over town and which make her ponder her own beliefs, and Beth Ellen meets the mother she last saw when she was four years old.

Eleven-year-old Harriet keeps notes on her classmates and neighbors in a secret notebook, but when some of the students read the notebook, they seek revenge.