Captain Rosalie

Captain Rosalie, a novella picture book by French author Timothée de Fombelle, is set during wartime Europe. Rosalie is a five-year old girl whose mother works in an ammunitions factory while Rosalie’s father is away at war. With no one to look after Rosalie during the day, her mother has an agreement with a local teacher to have Rosalie sit at the back of the class every day. There, Rosalie sits quietly with her notebook; the teacher and the boys in the class believe she’s drawing, but she has other plans:

But I am a solider on a mission. I am spying on the enemy. I am preparing my plan. I am Captain Rosalie.

When letters come from her father on the front lines, her mother reads the letters to Rosalie. Rosalie’s mother tells the young girl that her father cannot wait to spend time with her and do things with her again, such as going fishing. But one day a blue letter arrives. Rosalie’s mother can no longer look at her, and nothing is ever the same again. Rosalie can no longer contain herself and decides to take action.

I must not wait any longer. This is the moment. I am ready. I think of the medal I saw in my dream. It all becomes possible. Now I must fight out in the open.

Rosalie has kept a secret; while everyone thought she was drawing in her notebook, Rosalie was actually learning to read while at school. With the help of one of the boys in the class, Rosalie sneaks home and reads the letters herself. She finds out that her father’s letters actually spoke about the horrors at the front lines and his fears, not this ideal life that her mother had told her. Rosalie also then finds out that the blue letter states that her father has died in the war. Her mother finds her and, realizing her daughter can read, decides to no longer shield Rosalie from the realities of life. Rosalie’s mother hands her a medal that her father won for bravery.

Award-winning illustrator Isabelle Arsenault’s drawings contrast the colourfulness of childhood and imagination (Roaslie’s red hair) with the somber blacks and grays of the backgrounds, other characters, and the setting of wartime Europe. A quibble of the novella is that Rosalie’s voice is not a plausible voice of a five-year-old; her thoughts and inner voice feel much too complex and unrealistic. However, Rosalie’s thoughts are well-suited towards older readers making meaning of the text and the theme of war. The novella-style format of the book, the intense emotions, and voice of the book make Captain Rosalie an ideal read for older elementary students, ages nine and up.