Louise Fitzhugh Libri

Now a Major Motion Picture from Paramount Pictures! Harriet M. Welsch is determined to grow up and be a famous author. In the meantime, she practices by following a regular spy route each day and writing down everything she sees in her secret notebook. Then one morning, Harriet's life is turned upside down. Her classmates find her spy notebook and read it out loud! Harriet's in big trouble. The other sixth-graders are stealing her tomato sandwiches, forming a spy-catcher club, and writing notes of their own -- all about Harriet!

Harriet is impressed to learn that the girl she has befriended, now called Annie Smith, is the person who not only created three names–Rosarita Sauvage, Yolanda Montezuma, and Zoe Carpaccio–but also three distinct personalities to match. This girl has potential. Being a spy has always been rather solitary, so Harriet is glad to have a new friend and spy partner. But then Harriet realizes that Annie reveals very little about herself, and indeed, is not telling the truth about where she goes and who she meets on the weekend. Sport says he’s in love with the girl, but Annie lets drop she’s in love with an older man. Harriet can’t understand anything at all about this thing called love–even when she asks Ole Golly for advice, she still wonders. But as Harriet unravels Annie’s mystery, she comes to appreciate the many different kinds of love there are.

Harriet ist fest entschlossen, Schriftstellerin zu werden. Da hierfür genaues Recherchieren und Beobachten zählt, führt sie Buch über alles, was ihr auffällt. Als sie eines Tages ihr letztes Notizheft verliert und ihre Klassenkameraden es finden, sind diese entsetzt über die fast ausschließlich garstigen, wenn auch zutreffenden Bemerkungen. Der Hass der ganzen Klasse trifft Harriet, und guter Rat ist teuer. Doch durch das Verständnis und die Unterstützung ihrer Eltern und der Lehrerin findet Harriet aus diesem Dilemma heraus.