1 Photo "Sometimes You Have To Lie" by Leslie Brody. on Feb 1, 2021 Sometimes you have to lie — to get by a sticky situation, avoid hurting feelings, prevent harm. Indeed, as exemplified in “Sometimes You Have To Lie,” Leslie Brody’s biography of “The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, renegade author of ‘Harriet the Spy,’” lying is the mantra of Fitzhugh’s charming, feisty, groundbreaking 11-year-old Harriet. Fitzhugh was a “renegade” because she went against the grain in writing about and illustrating an innovative children’s book about a precocious, spunky busybody kid from the Upper East Side who spies on people and records blunt and telling observations about them in her journal. The “Harriet” book (1964) and its sequels signaled a realist movement in children’s literature. Harriet took daredevil risks, saw a therapist, did things kids weren’t supposed to do, used adult language. She obviously caught on: by 2019 “Harriet the Spy” had sold more than 5 million copies worldwide.