HAZEL GREEN

Here’s a young mover-and-shaker who will stay with readers for a long time. Wondering why children never march in the big Frogg Day parade, Hazel sets about making a change, first bringing around the children in her apartment building, then striking a deal with the parade’s child-hating Marshall. Having finally gotten the children to work together to design and build a float, she needs all of her resources, both to woo a standoffish classmate into her camp, and then to regain her own spot in the parade after a rival takes over the project. Hirsch handles a temporary falling out between Hazel and her best adult friend a bit clumsily, but brings the tale along nicely to a rousing conclusion filled with noise, joy, and confetti. Readers who enjoy meeting strong-minded characters who can shrug off reverses, muse over similarities between a flower bouquet and a poem, and speak as equals both to grownups and other children, will be delighted with Hazel Green. (Fiction. 10-12)