Rose Blanche

Title: Rose Blanche
Author: Roberto Innocenti and Christophe Gallaz
Illustrator: Roberto Innocenti
Publisher: Creative Editions, 1985
Genre: Picture Book, Historical Fiction
Age Range:2nd grade and up

Summary:

Rose Blanche is a young girl who is living in Germany during the time of WWII. Things have changed in her town; trucks rumble past carrying soldiers to unknown destinations. Rose Blanche is curious about all of these changes. One day Rose witnesses a little boy trying to escape from one of the trucks that always pass by. The young boy looked frightened; his escape was stopped by the Mayor and he was roughly returned to the truck. At this point, the story begins to change. Rose decides to follow the truck with the young boy.

What she discovers is a terrible place where men, women, and children are trapped behind a high electric, barbed wire fence. After this discovery, Rose begins conducting her own secret trips out of town to this mysterious, terrible place. Rose gives all of the food she can carry to these strangers in striped clothes wearing yellow stars. For these unknown people she is willing to sacrifice her safety and comfort, often going hungry herself.

Time passes and changes come to Rose's town again. New soldiers come and the people of the town flee. Rose Blanche, however, is nowhere to be found. Rose has gone on her mission. Rose soon discovers that town is not the only thing that has changed.

Response:

This is such a powerful, haunting book. One most powerful parts of the book is the illustrations. Innocenti tells an unwritten story through the details in his illustrations; a story that the reader must pay careful attention to as he or she turns each page of the text. The book begins with color and celebration; Rose blanch wears a red bow in her hair and proudly holds a Nazi flag. Once Rose encounters the young boy in the truck, you will notice that color in Rose's bow and in the pages of the book begins to fade. Toward the end of the text, the reader can see that Rose is no longer wearing her bow. I think this symbolizes her recognition of the Nazi party's role in these unknown people's fate and her defiance and courage to help these people. Rose's appearance also begins to change during the course of the book; her facial expressions now show sadness and worry where before she wore a smile. Rose's figure has also begun to change; she is becoming more and more gaunt as the story progresses.

The final pages of the book are again in color; the end of the darkness has come and life can begin anew. On the right hand side of the page, Innocenti includes a cross of sorts; I believe that this picture is symbolic of Rose's sacrifice.

Also, pay close attention to the narration throughout the text and you will notice that halfway through the text it switches. At the beginning of the text, Rose is our narrator (first person narration). After she discovers the camp, the narration switches to third person. This switch is important because it shifts the focus from Rose (a focus on herself) to a focus on others.

As you can see there are so many things to notice about this moving text!

Teaching Ideas:

In addition to reading the text for Rose Blanche, you MUST read the author's note that is included on the book jacket. It gives background on Innocenti's life and into the character of Rose Blanch. Did you know that Rose Blanche was named after a group of German citizens who protested the war? Eventually all of them were forced to give up their lives for their cause. You can read more about their story here.

Here are some other child friendly resources on the Holocaust.

http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215466/the_holocaust.htm

http://library.thinkquest.org/07aug/00117/holocaust.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00331/Camps.htm

I used Rose Blanche in connection to the novel The Guardians of Ga'Hoole: The Capture. You can check out connections between these two texts and explore the rest this unit here.