In the deceptively simple picture book Rose Meets Mr Wintergarten, Bob Graham introduces us to Rose Summers and her family. They are new arrivals who must learn about their scary (yet unseen) next-door neighbour, Mr Wintergarten.
Through the first half of Rose Meets Mr Wintergarten, we experience Mr Wintergarten only via his intimidating garden of spiky cacti and barbed wire fencing, with the huge, permanently gloomy house in the middle.
But there are stories about him, shared by the local children – about his wolf-like dog, his crocodile(!), and how dangerous a trip into his garden would be.
Rose does meet him, of course, and he is indeed fearsome. But the author quickly gives us insights that evoke pity rather than fear. Then we see how a single act of kindness changes the life of an insular, isolated old man, and benefits the entire neighbourhood.
There is a strong history of children’s stories depicting the power of kindness in opening up a closed heart. Rose Meets Mr Wintergarten is an excellent example of this.
Post-lockdowns, with isolation and related mental health issues still making themselves felt, this message is surely more important than ever.
Use Rose Meets Mr Wintergarten to explore ideas around acts of kindness towards lonely, perhaps outwardly unappealing characters.
At a more general level, it is also a near perfect book for exploring inference. Nearly everything important in the story is implied, not stated.
There’s also a chance to learn handy tier 2 vocabulary and authorial techniques that children might borrow for their own stories.
Christine Chen and Lindsay Pickton are primary education advisers supporting English development nationally.
