Harriet isn’t your typical protagonist. She lies, she’s selfish, and she’s often sulky and bad-tempered. Even as I read Just Harriet, I mulled over whether to introduce it to my book club. We’ve read and loved two books by Elana K. Arnold – A Boy Called Bat and Bat and the End of Everything – but this one’s quite different. The protagonist is younger; she’s just finished third grade. More, she behaves a lot younger; she’s not the sophisticated child we often see around us. But doesn’t that make her more real?
The answer, to my mind, was yes. And that’s why we’re reading Just Harriet at my book club for ages nine at ten next month.
Names
Harriet is named after the protagonist of Harriet the Spy, but whenever grown-ups make the link, she’s quick to say that she’s “just Harriet”. Names are important to all of us! What does your name mean? Who named you? What do you like about your name? I’d love to know!
Point of View
What if the whole story were told from a different point of view? The dog Moneypenny and the cat Matzo Ball would look at the whole summer quite differently, and it’ll be fun to explore an animal’s point of view, either in the form of poetry or diary entries!
Treasure Hunt
Harriet is sent to live with her Nanu on Marble Island. She’s determined to hate it there, but when she discovers a mysterious key, she knows she must go on a treasure hunt!
Writing about treasure is exciting. I’ve written several stories, in fact, about hunting for treasure, two of which were published in Dragonflies, Jigsaws and Seashells. During the creative writing component of Just Harriet, we’ll explore how we can create anticipation and suspense as we write a quest story.
Join my book club!
Registrations are now closed for the November-December 2024 edition of my book club. New batches begin every alternate month. Join my mailing list if you would like to receive email notifications about my programmes. Alternatively, follow me on social media – Facebook and Instagram – for regular updates.
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