Hazel Asks Why

by May Wynne, J. Dewar Mills (Illustrator)

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1926

About the author

May Wynne is a pseudonym for Mabel Winifred Knowles, prolific author of 211 books published between 1899 and 1954, as well as many short stories. Her works include thrillers, romances, adventures, historical and guide stories, didactic and religious pieces, and girls' school stories.

A Church worker at the Anglican mission parish of St Luke’s, Victoria Docks, Knowles used the proceeds from her writing career to fund mission activities. During the peak of her career, she wrote as many as eight books a year.

Reviews

[Helen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hazel is one of May Wynne’s less annoying heroines, who asks ‘why’ when she comes to school and finds the girls ostracising a day girl whose father was a grocer. But never worry, those mean girls don’t know that Amber’s father was an unsuccessful lawyer and soldier who only became a grocer to support his family, so she is of the right social background after all. May Wynne creates a lot of interesting characters in this book who struggle with their worse impulses, only to keep having them yield to them so that they can be shown up by the wonderful Hazel. Add in a totally irrelevant story of settler colonialism at its worst, told by Hazel to liven up a dull moment, and you have a book which sabotages itself. Add a star for Hazel being an engineering genius, take one off for the way this book shows how Wynne’s emphasis on equality among the British upper middle class and gentry comes at the expense of pretty much everyone else in the world.