I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The illustrations and writing are beautiful. This may be a little too heavy for smaller children.

Such a cute book. The illustrations make it.

Thank you to Netgalley for the free arc in exchange for an honest review.

It was such and interesting story for its intended audience. The story was very atmospheric. Rosalie is a brave little girl who loves her mother very much. And her mother, too, wants to protect Rosalie against the harshness of a world tournament by war.
This book sends a powerful message. It shows how children are able to cope with a difficult situation, and how strong they can be.
Additionally, the art fit the story perfectly. Orange represents the color of hope and fire.

This was a wonderful read. There were beautifully drawn illustrations and the story was lovely to read.

Children's books about war can be very challenging. How do you portray the frustration, anger, loss and hurt of war without over doing it (and terrifying) small children?
Captain Rosalie comes at a WWII story from the eyes of a little girl who is waiting for her father to return home from service. Without a doubt, the most endearing part, of Timothee de Fombelle's story is that the little girl loves to hear her mother read out her father's letters. But little Rosalie is no slouch and begins to suspect that maybe her mother is not reading the real words or telling the whole truth. So Rosalie takes initiative, all on her own, to learn to read! (adorable right!?)
Fombelle does a wonderful job of creating and displaying the confusion Rosalie has over how far away the war is and if it will come to them directly. And so her desire to learn more about the war, and not just her mother's flowery words, is very fitting. The muted illustrations fit beautifully in with the setting and somber war time frame.
All is well until we reach the tragic ending which I feel is not well explained for children. As adults it makes sense to us that Rosalie's mother wasn't telling her the real story in the letters from her father. But to a child I think this would be quite confused. I'm not sure if it's lost in the translation of languages here or just not handled quite very well. However, Captain Rosalie can start a conversation with any child about the nature of war and why 'we', as a society, should try to avoid it. I could also see this being a good book to relate a true historical past to children today who may have had trauma already in their young lives (lost parent, refugee children, domestic violence, etc.) as it does tell the true story of Rosalie's father by the end.

<i>Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.</I>

I received an arc from NetGalley for an honest review. Even if this is not your type of reading, check it out for the illustrations. This book is about a young girl who is on a secret mission while her father is away at war. It's a hard read but worth it.

In this gorgeously illustrated book, readers follow Captain Rosalie as she carries out her secret mission during WWI. Rosalie is learning to read, and it is this skill that will ultimately lead her to discover the truth about her father's experience and fate in the war. Lush illustrations in primarily grays, oranges, and blue help to convey the powerful emotions experienced in the tale. The subject matter is difficult and may seem a bit askew from the amount and level of the text, but this does make Captain Rosalie excellent introductory material for older readers. The ending is abrupt and leaves a lot unsaid, but it doesn't irreparably damage the experience. All characters present white. A powerful and effective tool for exploring war, loss, and family.

This book was so sweet and so sad. Rosalie fantasizes about herself as a captain to cope with her father's service in the military. She builds an unlikely friendship with another student and learns to read.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a surrealistic and rather strange little book and it's hard to know what age to recommend it for. The subject is a 5 year-old little French girl during WWI, but she speaks as if she's much older and the subject matter is quite sober -- war, loss, depression and the death of a parent eventually.

The book is about 60 pages long with some gray scale illustrations with Rosalie depicted with more color, especially her red hair. The length and vocabulary make it best suited for slightly older kids, despite the age of the narrator.

This book would be a good accompaniment to a unit on war, especially WWI. Be advised that it deals with the death of a parent (eventually) who is serving in the war, so use caution with children whose parents are in the service or who have lost a parent.

This is ultimately a sweet, well written, sobering story that will probably stay with children. Rosalie's friend Edgar is a caring figure and children may relate to Rosalie's mother's alternating fun mothering and sad resignation and eventual stoic grief. It reminds me a bit of the classic "The 100 Dresses," in that it can quietly help children develop empathy and live through another, sadder life that can give them perspectives about others. Like that book, this isn't necessarily a fun read.

My rating system:
1 = hated it
2 = it was okay
3 = liked it
4 = really liked it
5 = love it, plan to purchase, and/or would buy it again if it was lost

I read a temporary digital ARC of the book for the purpose of review.

Timothée de Fombelle’s tale for older children is an unusual one. Neither a picture book nor a novel, CAPTAIN ROSALIE tells the story of a little, flame-haired girl in the France of 1917. Every morning, Rosalie is dropped off at the little village school, presided over by a one-armed school master, who has been sent home from the front. He has kindly agreed to allow the five-and-a-half-year-old girl to sit at the back of a class of older students while her mother goes off to work at a factory. Rosalie’s father is away. He is fighting in the war.

Rosalie appears to spend her days drawing in a notebook while the lessons are taught. Really, though, she is fighting her own war, preparing for an important mission, which she believes will earn her a medal. It takes some time for readers to discover what this mission really is, but they eventually see that de Fombelle—aided by Isabelle Arsenault (his Canadian artist-illustrator)—has dropped some telling clues along the way.

Every evening on her way home from the factory, Rosalie’s mother picks the girl up from school. Often she carries letters from the little girl’s father. Sometimes she is tearful, and this is (strangely) when Rosalie loves her best: “when courage deserts her and her eyes are red.” Later her mother reads the letters aloud, and Rosalie fills with anger. She grows restive and impatient with what her mother reports her father will do—swim, fish, and eat walnuts and trout with Rosalie—if he comes home in the spring.

Rosalie particularly cannot abide her father’s exhortations about behaving herself: “the children keep us going by lending their mothers support and being good.” “I couldn’t care less about being good,” Rosalie thinks. “I don’t lend my mother to anyone. I don’t want to hear any talk of fish leaping in streams. I don’t believe in stories of walnuts and mills.” The only things that do seem to be true to Rosalie are the drawings her father includes in his letters: “A forest in the distance and the land in the foreground all churned up, with soldiers hiding in holes.”

Rosalie’s mission—her battle—is a psychological one, both intellectual and emotional. It involves cracking a code, penetrating the veil of words adults hang between children and the truth. Her story is a small but powerful and heroic one.

In a 2012 interview that appears in THE WALRUS, a Canadian general interest magazine of culture and ideas, Isabelle Arsenault commented: “I am attracted to deeper work, not to bright, funny or commercial art. I feel I’m much more underground than mainstream.” French author and playwright Timothée de Fombelle would seem to be her kindred spirit. Together the two have created a rich, nuanced, and compelling piece of literature for older children, and, yes . . . even for adults.

It's hard to pick the right audience for this book. The plot is fairly simple and easy to follow but somewhat abstract. It relies on the implied rather than the blatant. So even though it's basically a long form picture book and the protagonist is quite young, the audience is likely older, especially given that it is focused on the effects of war.

Originally published in 2014, Candlewick Press has re-released Timothée De Fombelle’s Captain Rosalie featuring English translation by Sam Gordon and illustrations by Isabelle Arsenault. Being a very big fan of Arsenault’s work, I grabbed this little book as soon as it was released.

A captivating story of a little girl, five and a half, during the First World War. Her father is away fighting for his country and has been for as long as she can remember. Captain Rosalie is at home with a mission of her own. Sitting at the back of the big kids class day in and day out while her mother is working in a factory making munitions for the war effort,Captain Rosalie bides her time. She observes and takes her mission very seriously and hopes to one day earn a medal for her mission. Her mission is learning how to read so she can read the letters her father sends home from the war. Once she finally sees her mission through, the reality of the war sinks in, leaving her with answers.

Brilliantly written, the story ebbs and flows moving from Rosalie’s mission to her time listening to her mother read her father’s letters to her encounters with her lieutenant, Edgar. You can tell Rosalie is not completely convinced of what her mother is reading to her in the letters from her father. Given that her mission is to learn how to read and the first thing she does is get a hold of the letters from her father, she can sense all along she is not getting the full story. The illustrations are so haunting and beautiful. Isabelle Arsenault chooses to illustrate a very bleak world so appropriate given the subject of the story. When she does use colour, it’s to emphasize a moment, such as Rosalie’s red hair, the quilt she snuggles in with her mom, the fire in the classroom fireplace. Captain Rosalie is a book that is small in size and not long in length but enormous in the perspectives we can draw from and the understanding we can achieve to hopefully ensure no other five year old needs to experience the hardship and heartbreak of war

I think the title "Captain Rosalie" is more relevant for the piece than the first one it received in Emglish, "The Great War" – yes we lose some of the irony, but this story could be applied to anywhere and anywhen; the few references to times and places that pin this as a WWI book can be glossed over, making this universal. And universally heart-tugging, too, for it features a little girl whose only memories are of the wartime. With her father at the front, and her mother at work in a bomb factory, she has got nothing else to do but sit silently beneath the coats at the back of the village school room, and plot and plan her mission. I won't say any more about what that mission is and what it leads to, for this brief work is a wonderful one when it's able to surprise you. That said a lot is also immediately foreseeable, but that's never in a bad way here. Gentle illustrations, whether small cameos or full double-page spreads, add a great side order of mood to proceedings, and all told this has to be recommended. A perfect piece to demonstrate the benefit of something a young reader might take for granted, and to allow debate on the value of being open with the truth. Four and a half stars.

This historical fiction book will remain in your heart long after the last page has been read.

Five and a half year old Rosalie's daddy is a soldier fighting in the First World War. Her mom is now employed in a factory and Rosalie is too old to go to the nanny's so her mother drops her off in the deserted school yard every morning before she goes to work. She awaits the arrival of the teacher at seven o'clock who lets her in the school and keeps an eye on her until her mother's return that evening. She is placed at the back of the room under the coat hooks, given a notebook and some pencils and that's where she spends her day... drawing, listening and observing.

But Rosalie has other plans as to why she is paying so close attention. Her mother shares her father's letters from the front lines with her some evenings. The special words he sends keeps their love alive and gives his daughter hope that he will return to his beloved little girl as soon as the war is over.

One day a letter arrives that her mother doesn't read to her. It's a letter that will change both of their lives forever. The author injects a dose of reality into the reader's heart of how cruel and final war can actually be. This reality has no up-side and always leaves a trail of brokenness, grief and despair.

The illustrations are muted and gray. The illustrator has added a touch of colour: Rosalie's red hair, her soft pink scarf and a colourful blanket that she and her mom curled up under on a snowy day when they were snowed in. It is a sad book that holds a valuable life lesson ... war can have very dire consequences. I love the book and highly recommend it.

This is a tale of five year old Rosalie on a secret mission set during WWI.
The cover design ,and inside illustrations, first drew my attention and brought the story to life!
Rosalie is enchanting. She has a surprisingly mature voice for someone so young. However, this juxtaposed with the happenings of a five year old is absolutely charming!
This story would appeal to a young and older audience.
I read this in one sitting. I give it five star!

Captain Rosalie is a heart-wrenching book. While it looks like it would market for the 3-5 range, it's about 2x too long, and a bit too mature for that age- yet I can't see too much interest from the customer base in the 7-11 range I'd suggest it for. It's well-suited to a classroom, especially for Remembrance Day and WWI curriculum, even WWII potentially.

Marketability aside, the illustrations were beautiful and I did enjoy the text. Rosalie's mission was very heartfelt, and I did get tears in my eyes.

Captain Rosalie is a book for older children by French author and playwright, Timothee de Fombelle. It is beautifully illustrated in watercolour, pen and ink by Isabelle Arsenault and translated from French by Sam Gordon. The recommended reader age is 8-12 years.

It’s the fall of 1917, and Rosalie is five and a half. She’s too young for her village school, but since her mum has to work at the factory, the teacher lets her sit at the back of the class of older children. What no one realises is that she’s on a secret mission.

In carrying out that secret mission, (to learn to read) so she can find out what her father has really written in his letters (and learn the fate her mother can’t bring herself to tell), she does discover she has a loyal friend, and that many more people than just her mother care about her. In fact, the whole village cares about her.

This is a book that illustrates for children the awful consequences of war. For Rosalie, these include her mother having to work at the factory so they have enough to live on, the teacher having lost an arm in the war, and her father being killed in combat, for which she must console herself with the knowledge of his bravery, to which the shiny medal attests. Sad and poignant, but with a valuable lesson for young readers.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Candlewick Press.

A beautiful yet heart-wrenching wartime tale about one young girls mission to learn how to read, Timothee de Fombelle and illustrator Isabelle Arsenault have together crafted an unforgettably powerful book that will be appreciated far and wide.

Arsenault's illustrations are beautifully delicate, yet powerfully simple, and Sam Gordon's translation is effectively moving. But being very text heavy and double the length of an average picture book, I don't think young children would have the patience to sit through this story despite the protagonist Rosalie being five-years-old. Yet older, middle grade readers will appreciate this unique view into the tragic consequences of war and it makes for a great conversational approach for parents and their children.

This wartime theme is one being explored more and more within children's literature, particularly picture books, and I definitely would recommend seeking out The Journey by Francesca Sanna and When the War Came by Nicola Davies for younger readers, and Michael Morpurgo for older children.

The illustrations are beautiful, but the story itself is hard to categorize. The main character, Rosalie, is a 5 year old girl, but her voice throughout the story reads much, much older than 5 years old. What audience is the book intended for?

Captain Rosalie is a beautiful, sobering story.

Rosalie's father is a soldier, fighting in the war far away. Her mother works in a factory,. The teacher at the village school watches over Rosalie while her mother works. Each day Captain Rosalie hides among the coats at the back of the classroom, unnoticed and ignored, which suits her secret mission just fine.

War leaves nothing untouched. Not the soldiers, not the countryside, not the families left behind. Her mother reads the letters her father sends home, but Rosalie can't help but wonder if she isn't be told the whole story. Fombelle's story of a young girl's determination to complete her mission--to learn to read--is beautiful. When she can finally read the letters for herself, she learns the horrible truths of war and loss, but the way in which she handles those truths speaks to the strength and resiliency of children.

Accompanied by simple, charming illustrations, this story reads like a story of an earlier era--in the best way possible.