The Long Secret
First edition
AuthorLouise Fitzhugh
IllustratorLouise Fitzhugh
CountryUnited States
SeriesHarriet the Spy
GenreChildren's spy novel
PublishedOctober 27, 1965
PublisherHarper & Row
Media typePrint
Pages275 (first ed.)[1]
ISBN0060214104 [2]
OCLC70458678
LC ClassPZ7.F5768 Lo[1]
Preceded byHarriet the Spy 
Followed bySport 

The Long Secret is a children's novel written and illustrated by Louise Fitzhugh that was released by Harper & Row on October 27, 1965.[3] It is a sequel or "companion"[1] to Harriet the Spy (1964), the only one published during Fitzhugh's lifetime.

Sport, another sequel to Harriet written by Fitzhugh, was published by the Dell imprint Delacorte Press in 1979.[4]

Plot summary

Harriet and her family are spending their summer in the beach town of Water Mill, Long Island). Her summertime friend, twelve-year-old Beth Ellen Hanson, sometimes called Mouse, is also in Water Mill with her grandmother. Mysterious anonymous notes start showing up all over town; they have a religious slant and expose the "sins" of the recipients. Harriet is determined to find out who is leaving them, and suspects anyone who reads the Bible.

Harriet drags Beth Ellen along on spying expeditions directed against Bunny, the piano-playing manager of the local hotel, and the Jenkinses, an eccentric southern family preoccupied with moneymaking schemes. Harriet's other friend Janie Gibbs and Mrs Agatha K. Plumber from Harriet the Spy also appear.

Beth Ellen learns that her rich mother, Zeeney, who left when she was five, is returning from Europe with her new husband, Wallace. Her grandmother expects Beth Ellen to be excited by the news, but she is indifferent. Zeeney turns out to be a beautiful but shallow socialite who is dissatisfied with her introverted daughter. Beth Ellen's dislike of her mother finally explodes in a temper tantrum which clears her head, leaving her happier and more confident.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The Long Secret". LC Online Catalog. Retrieved 2014-12-29 – via Library of Congress.
  2. ↑ Unknown later Harper & Row edition OCLC 301131.
  3. ↑ "The Long Secret by Louise Fitzhugh {...}". Kirkus Reviews. September 14, 2011. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  4. ↑ "Sport". LC Online Catalog. Retrieved 2014-12-29 – via Library of Congress.
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