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Article: Amy Welborn. (Summer reading).
- Article from:
- Commonweal
- Article date:
- June 20, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Commonweal Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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When I was a child, my favorite book was Louis Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy. Harriet, in case you don't know, is a scruffy, almost-outcast young girl who spends her time observing people up close and in secret, writing about what she sees, enduring the consequences of her discoveries. I must have read it fifteen times.
Thirty years later, upon giving the book to my daughter, I pondered my attachment to Harriet. The reason became clear. It wasn't that both Harriet and I were writers. I connected with Harriet because we are both, at heart, nosy little girls. Nosiness is underrated. After all, what is it but curiosity about what other people do when they run up ...