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A review of the new biography of Louise Fitzhugh inspired me to hunt this one out again. I'd read it a long time ago and remembered being impressed, but no details. It was not one of the two I reread over and over again in my childhood, Harriet the Spy and The Long Secret.
So this was almost like a first read for me. And I was startled by the punch that Fitzhugh packs in this little story. As in the books centered around Harriet and Beth Ellen, the strength is in the main characters, Emma and Willie – they leap off the page (literally in the case of Willie, the dancer). In intimate details of their inner and outer behavior and thinking, their idiosyncrasies and flaws, they become real to us, we become invested in their dreams and identify with their plight. The adults are more distant and caricatured, almost just props to bring out the theme of the book, which is the powerlessness of abused children and the fight for their rights.
What is most unusual here is that the children themselves are the ones who are fighting. And Emma, in particular, has to go through a difficult process of finding her true goals and her hidden strength, and rejecting “help” that would reduce her power and agency. The story ends just where I rather wish Fitzhugh would have gone on to write a second half. It would have been so interesting to see what developed once Emma made connections with other girls who wanted to create change in their lives. But maybe she couldn't write that part because the history hadn't happened yet. I think it's happening now.
