The scene is a small town on Long Island; the writing is not nearly as seriously funny as in the original; and even though...
This is more about that spankingly (spankably?) fresh heroine Harriet The Spy whose initial appearance occasioned all kinds of discussion among those who monitor juvenile literature; some thought she wasn't very "nice"; some even took the position that she was "sick."
In any case, in this sequel, Harriet is much less of a controversial character, and, sadly, she's lost lots of her sassy spriteliness. There are however occasional sequences which make the book, rather than Harriet, vaguely (very vaguely, by our standards) liable to censure. There is some consideration of religion with a valid if unorthodox conclusion—"It is a tool to get through life with. And if it works, it is a good tool. And if it don't work, it is a bad tool." Then there's a perfectly natural short discussion of that natural feminine phenomenon, menstruation, which occurs at this age but is seldom mentioned in juvenile fiction at this age level... Beyond that, The Long Secret is not as good, or perhaps cohesive, a story as the first one, partly because Harriet is subsidiary to her friend Beth Ellen. Beth Ellen's life is now disrupted by the reappearance of her delinquent but glamorous mother whom she hadn't seen in seven years. Her mother arrives, along with a new marital acquisition, and subjects Beth Ellen to Elizabeth Arden, the Bath & Tennis Club and a whole unwanted worldly sphere of life. In this case, Mother doesn't know best and is sent away, back to Europe. And this situation is not only an innovation but a dramatic reversal of the accepted "good family relationship" which usually obtains in books for and about the young... What about Harriet? She's busy too, trying to find out just who has been littering the community with threatening Biblical admonitions and the culprit will come as a surprise...
The scene is a small town on Long Island; the writing is not nearly as seriously funny as in the original; and even though Louise Fitzhugh is still well ahead of the field, the book is not as appealing as the first.Pub Date: Oct. 27, 1965
ISBN: 978-0-440-41819-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1965
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
