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31/3/13 15:50K.T.Horning has a great essay on Harriet the Spy.
Harriet the Spy was one of the books we had during our eighteen months living in rural France. There were no English bookstores -- I don't think I even went to a French bookstore while I was there -- so we made do with very occasional deliveries of chapter books through the mail; I guess one of the aunts or uncles must have organized things.
We read the Ramona books, the Little House books, a heck of a lot of Roald Dahl* -- my mom read to me and my twin long after we could read adequately for ourselves, but I remain a huge advocate of that because there's so much cultural context you don't have even after you can read the words on the page. A lot of parents want their kids to be reading classic books but they don't realize that their kid is sitting there thinking, "What does he mean, he's going to lick him?"
I have good memories of Harriet the Spy -- it made me feel grown up, reading about a spy, like something out of a John Le Carre novel. (I think I had seen my parents reading them.) But the version in my head is kind of different from Horning's version. I blame the horrible cover art. Really, Harriet? Pigtails?
...I guess it just proves that publishers ruining great cover art with Generic Stock Image of Girl is nothing new. I do like the way that the current edition updates the original cover without having it look like she might be walking alone through a dangerous neighborhood.
*We stopped when we got to the GRAPHIC SWAN DEATH. A good book, when I rediscovered it several years later, but somewhat traumatizing!
Harriet the Spy was one of the books we had during our eighteen months living in rural France. There were no English bookstores -- I don't think I even went to a French bookstore while I was there -- so we made do with very occasional deliveries of chapter books through the mail; I guess one of the aunts or uncles must have organized things.
We read the Ramona books, the Little House books, a heck of a lot of Roald Dahl* -- my mom read to me and my twin long after we could read adequately for ourselves, but I remain a huge advocate of that because there's so much cultural context you don't have even after you can read the words on the page. A lot of parents want their kids to be reading classic books but they don't realize that their kid is sitting there thinking, "What does he mean, he's going to lick him?"
I have good memories of Harriet the Spy -- it made me feel grown up, reading about a spy, like something out of a John Le Carre novel. (I think I had seen my parents reading them.) But the version in my head is kind of different from Horning's version. I blame the horrible cover art. Really, Harriet? Pigtails?
...I guess it just proves that publishers ruining great cover art with Generic Stock Image of Girl is nothing new. I do like the way that the current edition updates the original cover without having it look like she might be walking alone through a dangerous neighborhood.
*We stopped when we got to the GRAPHIC SWAN DEATH. A good book, when I rediscovered it several years later, but somewhat traumatizing!