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| The cover of Hasel and Rose. |
ARTIST: Caroline Magerl
STORY: This book explores the feelings of belonging and yearning and loss and hope. Hasel and Rose is a story about optimism and hope and finding friendship. Author and illustrator Caroline Magerl has captured these feelings beautifully and uniquely in her very first book.
Really the book tells two stories. The text describes Rose’s story of a new home, her family, her longing for the ‘wish thing’, her family's help and how she eventually makes a new friend. The other story is about how Hasel gets to Rose, which is shown only in a series of illustrations spread throughout the book.
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| Rose, with her family in her new home, looking out the window. |
SNIPPET:
But when Rose was alone behind the door
of her room, she looked out at things small
and far away and she wished...
but the wish thing did not come.
RECOMMENDED: for 5 year olds and older
WHY I LIKE THE BOOK: The story leaves a lot of room for imaginative understanding. This is achieved through Caroline Magerl’s delicate touch and what she has left out of the story. Many things are not explained in depth so when Rose has a wish that wish is not specified and when Hasel arrives we don't find out much about her except that
"inside her was a red glass heart
for finding things small and far away..."
The book allows room for connecting with our own feelings. This is also achieved by the wish and other things not being articulated in the book but are instead expressed through illustration. The separate journey of Hasel across the water has no words of explanation so we can only imagine where Hasel has come from and how she got into her box and who is missing her now.
The story does not underestimate children’s emotional intelligence, instead it actually helps them use their own abilities to understand difficult feelings like being new, and feeling like you don't fit in and wanting something and achieving it.
PUBLISHER: Penguin Viking Australia July 2014
EXTENSION: Teacher's Notes for grade 2 (PDF)
Find out more about Caroline Magerl at her own website.