Harriet the Spy (TV Tie-In Edition) characters

Appears from the start

An eleven-year-old New Yorker who intends to become a writer and believes observation is her essential training. Harriet follows a daily spy route, records blunt judgments in a private notebook, and dislikes having her routines controlled. She is imaginative, curious, stubborn, and often unaware of how sharply her words could hurt the people she studies.

Also known as Ole Golly

Appears from the start

Harriet's nurse and closest adult companion, whose real name is Catherine Golly. Intelligent, unsentimental, and widely read, she encourages Harriet to think and write while setting firmer limits than Harriet's busy parents usually do.

Also known as Sport

Appears from the start

Harriet's practical best friend. Sport manages shopping, cooking, and money for his distracted father, leaving him little patience for waste or disorder. He accepts Harriet's eccentric habits but expects loyalty from her.

Appears from the start

Harriet's other best friend, an aspiring scientist whose experiments regularly take over part of her home. Janie shares Harriet's intensity and independence, though her interests are directed toward chemistry rather than observation and writing.

Appears from the start

Harriet's mother, a fashionable and socially active woman who has left much of Harriet's daily care to Ole Golly. She loves her daughter but is often unsure how to respond to Harriet's secrecy, intensity, and refusal to behave conventionally.

Appears from the start

Harriet's father, a businessman who shares his wife's concern about their daughter's behavior. He is affectionate but remote from Harriet's routines and depends on Ole Golly's judgment more than Harriet realizes.

First appears in chapter 3

A confident girl in Harriet's class who leads the social group around her. Marion values status and influence and frequently competes with Harriet, making her a powerful adversary when the class turns against the aspiring spy.

First appears in chapter 3

A classmate in Marion's circle whom Harriet observes with the same unsparing attention she gives everyone else. Beth Ellen is highly conscious of her appearance and place within the group.

First appears in chapter 2

A solitary man on Harriet's spy route who lives with many cats. Harriet watches him through a skylight and tries to infer the private concerns behind his repeated efforts to contact people.

First appears in chapter 2

A wealthy woman on Harriet's spy route who spends much of her time in bed directing servants and dwelling on her health. To Harriet she is one more adult puzzle to be studied and judged from concealment.

First appears in chapter 5

Ole Golly's suitor, whose arrival threatens the arrangement Harriet depends on. He treats Ole Golly as a woman with a life beyond her work in the Welsch household, something Harriet is reluctant to accept.