Have Courage, Hazel Green!
Odo Hirsch

Allen & Unwin, 2001

262p pbk $14.95

ISBN: 1-86508-466-2

Have Courage, Hazel Green! is about someone who is very mean to a person. Hazel is amazed with the things that are being said and she decides to take action, but then her plan backfires and she is the victim.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it very enjoyable to read. Odo Hirsch has written magnificently. I couldn’t stop reading when I had started. The other books about Hazel Green are just as good. Any reader would love reading this fascinating book.                                 

She has a very strong sense of what is fair and what isn't,  and when she sees something that isn't she has to do something about it.  In this book, the third one about her, she hears  the caretaker of her building being abused by one of the residents ... "I don't like you, and I don't like your kind!" 

Hazel is determined to find out what is meant be that remark and in this intriguing, can't-put-down tale we learn a lot about racism and discrimination and how the black-and-white perceptions of childhood can produce some very unexpected results.

I also like Odo Hirsch's writing style.  He doesn't muck around with a lot of extra details that you don't need - you just get what you need to know about the places and the characters so you can build a picture in your mind . He doesn't write about what the characters look like,   just how they think and feel so it is very easy for me to imagine myself as Hazel Green. I think even the boys will like it so much they will forget she is a girl and will think they are just like her too.

I hope Mr Hirsch has some more Hazel Green stories in his head.
Natalya, 13, Sydney