Rose Blanche [Paperback]

What a fantastic, wonderful book - but not really for young children. The concepts are far too challenging. This is one for 9 to 99 year olds!

I am a year 6 teacher, and part of my History curriculum covers life during World War 2. Although we barely touch on the effects of the war for children abroad, this book covers a lot of it and introduces children to several challenging and disturbing concepts - thus tying together History and PSHE. It covers similar ideas to 'The Boy in Striped Pyjamas', but in a shorter and more instantly accessible format.

Rose Blanche is a young girl who discovers a concentration camp very near to where she lives. She visits regularly, not really understanding what she sees. The ending is sad, but the book is amazing!

Rose Blanche
Roberto Innocenti
By Bethany (Aged 10)

The main character in this story is Rose. Rose Blanche, at the beginning of the story, is a chirpy and cheerful character. However, towards the end of the story, her personality changes completely.

The story is set during ww2 and Rose is a German girl. The atmosphere in the village at the start of the story is very cheery as the soldiers go off to war but that soon changes. Rose finds a concentration camp and is horrified by what she sees. She is a warm-hearted girl and makes friends with the children. She feeds the children who are very grateful but on one of her trips to visit them with food, she finds the place in ruins. After that, Rose Blanche goes missing...

The parts I like in the book is the cosy feel of the village at the beginning of the story. I liked that because even though the war is happening, everyone was being nice towards each other. My favourite part if the book is when Rose Blanche shows such kindness and generosity to the children. I think Rose is a beautiful character.

The parts I didn't like as much were the bits when the village changed and everyone fought with each other. The twist at the end of the story surprised me and I felt quite devastated but it is still a good story.

The story made me think about how life must have been during the war. It made me think how privileged we are not to be experiencing it now. I would definitely recommend this book. I think it is good for ages right from ages eight and upwards because children this ages will have an understanding of the book.

Rose Blanche
Roberto Innocenti
By Tobi (Aged 10)

The story is based around a chirpy, young lady called Rose. Rose is not happy about the war but is supporting the country, Germany. Living alone with her mother, Rose must be careful because if anything happens to her, her mum will be left all alone...

The chirpy girl, Rose Blanche, was enjoying the first day of WW2 but her life is about to be changed forever by her curiosity as she follows a van into a forest and stumbles on a concentration camp. She should never have followed the van as it changes things forever...

The part of the story I liked the most was when Rose starves herself because she so kindly wanted to give the Jews in the concentration camp her food. I also liked the twist at the end of the story, it was unexpected.

The part I liked least was when the boy was being chased into the van because there were five or six soldiers all trying to get one boy. I also would have liked some speech between characters in the story.

This is not a funny story and may even be a little bit scary for very young children. From the story I learnt that everybody should be treated the same, no matter what. I would recommend this story to people because it can teach you about WW2 but I do think you need to be interested in WW2.

Rose Blanche
Roberto Innocenti
By Chelsea (Aged 10)

The main character in this story is Rose Blanche. She is a happy and cheery girl at the beginning of the story but towards the end she becomes a sad yet kind character, as her personality changes. She is a young girl who lives with her mother and father. Her father has left to fight in the World War II.

At the start of the story, the village is a cheery, happy place but Rose sees a man throw a young boy in back of a van. Feeling curious, Rose follows it and comes across a concentration camp with lots of Jewish children in it. After that, she visits the camp everyday and takes her own food to feed to the Jews. She visits throughout the winter but towards the end of the story Rose goes missing and no-one knows where she is....

I really enjoyed the story because it is one that when you pick it up you can't put it down. My favourite part of the story is the beginning when everyone is jolly and happy. I liked the twist at the end of the story but didn't expect it at all. The part of the story I liked the least was the end when she goes missing because it is a very sad part of the story.

When I read the story it made me feel mixed emotions. I felt happy at the start of the story, scared when she steals food, just in case she gets caught and I also felt very sad when Rose has something horrific happen to her...

The story made me think about what it was like in different countries during WW2 and also think about why people wanted to help Jewish people who were kept in concentration camps. I would definitely recommend this story because it is such an interesting book. Anyone aged 7 and upwards would like this book because the story is easy to follow and understand.

This book allows you to understand what it was like for a German child during the war. I think this book is very good because many books are about English children or sometimes not children, but adults.
The pictures in the book are extraordinary because of the colours as they are very dull, but they great brighter.
At the end of the story Ian McEwen describes the Spring arrival as a little invasion. This is a good example of using imagery to create effects.
This book also shows that lots of children were in camps and did die and were not evacuated like the children in England.
I think this book would be good for an older junior age child who is learning about the war.