Captain Rosalie

Since her father is off fighting for France in WWI and her mother works in a factory, the local schoolteacher looks after Rosalie, who sits quietly at the back of the classroom, drawing and listening. In her racing imagination, the five-year-old (who has never known peacetime) is Captain Rosalie, a soldier “on a mission.... preparing a plan.” Though consumed by wartime thoughts—in one poignant scene, she leans out her window at night, listening for “the noise of the war”—Rosalie feigns no interest in her father’s letters from the front, which her mother reads aloud, omitting harrowing details. Yet Rosalie steadfastly prepares for her nebulous military obligations, “so I’m ready for when my day comes.” That time suddenly arrives in the form of a nighttime visit from a gendarme delivering the news that she and her mother have silently dreaded. De Fombelle (Vango) sublimely crafts a taut story with expansive spaces between words, inviting readers’ creative interpretation. In similarly open-ended and emotion-charged art by Arsenault (Colette’s Lost Pet), Rosalie’s luminous, carrot-hued hair and determined expressions interject a promise of hope amid the darkness. A heartrending portrayal of resilience in sorrowful times. Ages 8–12. [em](June) [/em]