1.6 “She’s a little #$%!, but I still love her” – Harriet the Spy

Katherine From Sweden returns to revisit a childhood favorite, Harriet the Spy. The book is about an 11-year-old girl, the titular Harriet, who lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan circa 1964. Harriet wants to know everything there is to know about anything, and obsessively writes down the things she observes in a series…

Katherine From Sweden returns to revisit a childhood favorite, Harriet the Spy. The book is about an 11-year-old girl, the titular Harriet, who lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan circa 1964. Harriet wants to know everything there is to know about anything, and obsessively writes down the things she observes in a series of notebooks. From this premise comes a delightful and surprisingly dark coming-of-age story about alienation and abandoment. Also, a list of hilarious cat names.

Katherine identifies a very personal connection to the story and muses on the child-rearing practices of the 1960’s that are inadvertantly revealed in the book. There is a bit more swearing on this episode than is typical of the podcast, although in our defense, Harriet really is a little #$%! (but Katherine still loves her).

Outro Music: The “I Spy” Theme Song