A new biography of Louise Fitzhugh, who wrote “Harriet the Spy”

I read "Harriet the Spy" as a child, then re-read it 2 years ago to my own kids, and I couldn't shake the thought, as I read it, that this was a portrait of a girl with autism before autism was really understood, or at least widely known as a diagnosis.

Here is a blog post by an autistic woman that goes into detail about why Harriet is pretty clearly on the autism spectrum:

https://cllynch.com/harriet-the-spy-is-autistic/

To be honest, this realization made it harder for me to enjoy the book as an adult, because it's hard to watch her life spiral out of control, knowing that if the people around her better understood autism, some of that pain might have been avoided.

I read the book as a young'un in the target demographic.

My review: Harriet the Spy was a very stupid story.

It's a bait-and-switch. The title gets you really excited to read about a female grade-school James Bond.

"Harriet the Spy" is a title that promises stealth and deception and disguises and gadgets and explosions and international intrigue. I fully expected to see a cackling maniacal supervillain mastermind capturing and taunting the protagonist, then when all hope seems lost she somehow gets free, leading to a heart-pounding escape sequence culminating in an action-packed blowout ending that totally wrecks the bad guys' diabolical world domination plan and brings them to justice. All while maintaining her cover identity as an ordinary sixth grader.

Instead it's just a girl writing about her classmates' personalities in a notebook.

I still remember how disappointing it was, all these years later.