One of my favorite children's book is called
Rose Meets Mr. Wintergarten by Bob Graham. It's a nice story about a young girl you accidentally throws her basketball over the fence to her grim neighbor, Mr. Wintergarten, backyard . Other children tell Rose that Mr.Wintergarten eats kids and has a wolf as a dog, so nobody ever goes over there. Throughout the illustrations, the reader can see the dark grey colors of Mr. Wintergarden's house in the background behind Rose's colorful home. I just reread it and caught something that I hadn't noticed as a child, Rose's last name is Summers. And the mean neighbor is named Mr. Wintergarten. Summer vs. winter, nice vs. evil. When one thinks of summer, they mostly think of nice and warm surroundings. However when you think of winter, you think cold and dark. Now this may not be so "secret" but I think it is interesting to see how the author depicted the names with the matching personality. As a child, they were just names to me. But now, I feel like I have a better understanding of the characters and can accurately analyze them. Another message is that you can't always judge someone without getting to know them. Mr. Wintergarten seems bitter at first, but when people start paying attention to him, he warms up and becomes a very friendly man. This is a common case of "don't judge a book by it's cover".
(image via
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61XY3FV624L._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
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