Business and legal ethics are not the topics that leap immediately to mind as likely storylines for a young readers’ novel.  Run away screaming would probably be the expected response from readers! 

But Odo Hirsch’s Hazel Green books are never “likely” or “expected”.  What they are, though, is very, very good. 

Think Smart, Hazel Green is the fourth book in the series and, once again, the feisty leader of the Moodey Building kids sets out to right wrongs and save the day.  This time the problem is Mr Volio’s bakery – the source of luscious Chocolate Dippers, Cherry Flingers and Cream Canoopers.  His lease is up and the new owner refuses to renew it.  Mr Volio will be thrown out of business! 

Hazel cannot understand why the adults passively accept this injustice as a “smart business move”.  She cannot see why lawyers play such complicated games with words and rules when people’s lives are under such threat. 

These contradictions between the Law and Justice, between open honesty and business dealings, are the sort of concepts at which Odo Hirsch excels.  Hazel tries different means to change what seems inevitable – she organizes protests, she chases lawyers, she asks and demands and pleads for explanation from the adults involved.  Finally, Hirsch has her realise that she has to step back a bit from her emotional involvement and think the way her opponents are thinking.  

Odo Hirsch’s books are moral, in the sense that the stories present the choices about right and wrong that we can face in everyday life.  Hazel is no ideal super-hero.  She treads on many toes and makes plenty of clumsy mistakes in her crusades.  But she is determined to understand and she drags us out of those grey areas that are often easier than facing the truth. 

Think Smart, Hazel Green might be a younger readers’ book, but plenty of adults could learn a lot from it.

Other titles in the series:
Hazel Green (Allen & Unwin 1999)
Something's Fishy, Hazel Green (Allen & Unwin 2000)
Have Courage, Hazel Green (Allen & Unwin, 2001)

Other titles by this author:
Yoss (Allen & Unwin 2001)
Antonio S. and the Mystery of Theodore Guzman (Allen & Unwin 1997)
Bartlett and the Ice Voyage (Allen & Unwin 1999)
Bartlett and the City of Flames (Allen & Unwin 2000)
Bartlett and the Forest of Plenty (Allen & Unwin 2001)
Bartlett and the Island of Kings (Allen & Unwin 2003)
Frankel Mouse (Allen & Unwin 2000) 
Frankel Mouse and the Bestish Lair (Allen & Unwin 2002)
Pincus Corbett's Strange Adventure (Allen & Unwin 2002) 
Slaughterboy (Allen & Unwin, 2005)

Review by David Beagley

© 2003 David Beagley