A review by ellalouise99
Captain Rosalie by Isabelle Arsenault, Timothée de Fombelle, Sam Gordon

4.0

A beautiful book about a young girl living through the war. Rosalie is a young girl living with her mother while her father is out at war. She spends her days sat at the back of the older children’s classroom, completing her secret mission of learning to read so she can read her fathers letters herself. She discovers her father is having an awful time at war and her mother was making up the happy stories. He ends up dying and Rosalie finds out by reading the letter. She has a mixed relationship with her mother but ultimately loves her, something many children would be able to relate to. There are many themes including friendship, family, war, love and hope in the book. I would use the book with lower KS2 alongside learning about the war to give a child’s perspective of the challenging and heartbreaking events. The illustrations in the book are very dark and bleak which reflect the views on war and could lead to discussion about this.