When she came into the bedroom, Harriet and Janie were discussing the situation. The next day was Saturday and Beth Ellen went to Harriet’s house for the day. Beth Ellen has just gotten her period for the first time – Harriet is cranky because she hasn’t gotten it (not that she wants to menstruate – but she hates being left behind) – Beth Ellen’s mother is not in the picture so she has no one to go to for advice except her Grandmother – so Beth Ellen and Harriet talk to Janie, the crazy scientist girl from their class, to see if she knows what this whole period thing is about. She’s such a little temperamental tyrant. Oh, and the whole menstruation topic is HUGE with Beth Ellen and Harriet (oh, and good old crazy Janie comes into the book as well) – since they are 12, and Beth Ellen starts menstruating that summer. The intricacies of the plot are not as clear to me with this one as with Harriet – I can’t remember – Beth Ellen is staying with her grandmother, I know that – and her mother is … off gallivanting with a new man in Europe or something? Beth Ellen is kind of a sad character.

Nobody knows who is writing these notes, and it gets the town into a kind of tizzy. The butcher gets one, the librarian gets one, etc etc. The girls are now 12 – and it’s summer vacation – and their families both have houses in a place like The Hamptons (of course they do!! You always could tell Harriet’s family was wealthy.) And there’s a mystery in the town – someone has been writing strange notes, and leaving them all over town. The lead of this book is Beth Ellen (a mousy girl who appears peripherally in Harriet the Spy).

A sort of sequel to Harriet the Spy – only Harriet isn’t the lead of this one. Next book on the shelf is The Long Secret by Louise Fitzhugh.