Rose Blanche By Roberto Innocenti

This picture book was about a young girl named Rose Blanche living amongst the war and Holocaust without really understanding what was going on around her. One day Rose followed an army tanks to a concentration camp. She saw starving children behind barbed wire fences. Everyday after she found them she traveled into the woods and gave them food everyday. From my interpretation, Rose was shot and killed one day while visiting the concentration camp. The illustrations were very detailed and used dark colors until the last page when the author talks about how “the crocuses finally sprang up from the ground. The river swelled and overflowed its banks. Trees were green and full of birds”. Life had sprung from where the concentration camp was held. Additionally, Innocenti explains the significance of the title of this book; Rose Blanche was a group of young German citizen protesting the war. Every member of this group was killed. Personally I did not find this book controversial. I feel as though children need to learn about America’s history from multiple perspectives. This book was not gruesome and did not directly discus what the Holocaust was or about death. I believe that this book should be read aloud with the class and also hold a class discussion about the topics.