Sweet story about getting to know the people around you.

Rose meets Mr. Wintergarten is another great Bob Graham book. Rose and her family move into their new house and much to their surprise they find they have a strange next-door neighbor. Rumor has it Mr. Wintergarten has a pet gator and eats children. Rose is a brave little girl and goes to ask Mr. Wintergarten for her ball back. He originally tells her no and sends her home but then something happens. Mr. Wintergarten opens up his curtains to see all the children, he goes outside and kicks the ball back over the fence to Rose. Rose and her friends find out he is not the mean man everyone claimed him to be and they become friends. Moral of the story, you should never judge a book by its cover. You will never know if you don't find out for yourself. ( )

A story of a young girl who chooses to believe there is good in everyone, even when they may seem extremely grumpy old man.

3-5
Pierce College Library System

This is a cute little story of the generic "mean neighbor next door." Rose's family has just moved into the neighborhood, and while playing with neighborhood kids, loses her ball over the fence to the dark and dreary house. The neighborhood kids tell Rose all kinds of scary storys about how the neighbors mean and has a pet crocodile that eats children! After talking to her mother, Rose gains the courage to go over to ask for her ball back, and she realizes that the neighbor, Mr. Wintergarten, is not scary at all but very nice!

I would use this for a second and older age group. I think its a great story on not jumping to conclusions and to not judge someone for what's on the outside, but what's on the inside. ( )

This is a great book to show how rumors get spread and how a little kindness can go a long way to change a person's life.
Little Rose is sent to retrieve a ball that she has lost over Mr Wintergarten's fence. Convinced that he is everything her new friends say that he is, she is quite afraid to go. While visiting with him, he is almost as scary as she has been told, but something about Rose's warmth melts Mr Wintergarten's icy exterior. ( )