ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 23, 1996 TAG: 9607230028
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Beth Macy
SOURCE: BETH MACY
They were planted firmly in the middle of the front row, a box of Care Bears Gummi Bears in hand.
They were, respectively, Maggie McDowell and Ashley Glover. Seven-year-old girls, neighbors and born storytellers.
Between slurps of Gummi Bears and while waiting for the start of ``Harriet the Spy'' - a movie about writing the truth - they spoke of their own favorite stories.
Ashley, who had come to see ``Harriet'' for the second time in as many days, prefers writing long and complicated stories, such as her favorite, ``The Boy Who Forgot His Mother,'' based loosely on real-life events.
``Most of her stories involve her 4-year-old brother, Kyle, and lots of blood,'' explained Maggie's mother, Janet McDowell.
For example, on Halloween night, Kyle fell on his mother's flower pot and had to get six stitches. ``He didn't get to go trick-or-treating, so we had to give him almost all our candy,'' Ashley recalled, the horror still fresh.
Maggie prefers writing stories about bullies in school - and the comeuppance they receive. One of two girls on her tee-ball team, she is not the type a bully is likely to pick out to pick upon.
She had no trouble identifying with cool-girl, writer and snoop Harriet M. Welsch, the protagonist of Nickelodeon's summer movie. She liked Harriet, she said, ``because she wasn't prissy.''
Check out the blockbusters this summer. There are the requisite shoot-'em-ups, ``Independence Day'' and ``Eraser.'' There's the requisite goofy flick, ``The Nutty Professor,'' and the requisite see-Demi-nude vehicle, ``Striptease.''
You could say ``Courage Under Fire,'' an excellent film, is the rare Hollywood production that gives women a fair shot. But, in the end, the Army captain played by Meg Ryan meets her demise precisely because she's a woman - with power.
And so girls like Maggie and Ashley are left with the movie based on Louise Fitzhugh's novel, ``Harriet the Spy,'' which has sold 2.5 million copies since it was published in 1964.
The first book I remember really loving, ``Harriet'' grabbed me because she was neither a princess nor a damsel in distress. She was, more than any other character in children's fiction, like me:
A girl trying to figure out the difference between just looking at the world and really seeing it.
A girl who knew that if you stick to what you love - ``and work like a dog,'' as she says - you'll succeed.
A girl who struggled with: a.) Her desire to have friends; b.) Her desire to be an individual and c.) The fact that a and b are sometimes mutually exclusive.
Harriet created her own cozy little world of eavesdropping, note-taking and wandering about the world. She was not afraid of being alone.
As a fourth-grader, I remember admiring how comfortable she seemed in her own skin. I still aspire to that level of confidence.
So as soon as it opened, I rounded up my best girlfriend and fellow ``Harriet'' fan - and insisted she go with me to the movie.
The requisite laughter and tears? Both came easily.
The requisite whining about the movie being too glam and MTV-ified to be true to the book? Of course. (Especially the omission of Harriet's eyeglasses, a staple on every decade's version of the book cover.)
And the requisite high-fives that, if nothing else, the movie will make young girls - and boys, too, we hope - read the book? Definitely.
In fact, the best thing about seeing ``Harriet the Spy'' on the big screen didn't even occur during the 97-minute production. It happened on the way out.
Two girls - one about 9, the other around 7 - held their mother's hands as they walked from the dark theater into the bright Salem Valley 8 parking lot.
Clutched in their other hands were spiral-bound notebooks and No. 2 pencils; there was a renewed confidence in the sound of their own voices.
LENGTH: Medium: 77 linesby CNB