Rose by Night

Krystyna J. Higgins is the former book review editor for the Catholic
New Times.

The best thing about this book is its rather poetic title.
Unfortunately, it goes downhill from there. The subject—night-time
fears—is one familiar to young children and their parents. Rose has a
“magic drink” before bed, a concoction of milk, rosewater, and
“lots of other things.” (Whether this is the cause of her nightmares
or an intended preventative is not clear.) When she wakes up to go to
the bathroom, her imagination serves up a trio of terrors including a
smelly witch, a vampire, and a child-eating ogre. The first two Rose
banishes with a magic spell, while the third she dispatches in the nick
of time by turning on the light. At last she is able to answer
nature’s call and go back to bed.

The story, told in verse, is accompanied by confusingly busy
illustrations. The weakest feature of this very odd book, however, is
the text itself. The rhythm is halting and inconsistent, and the rhyming
ranges from forced to utterly banal: “It’s so dark, / I’m so sad,
/ Because I need / To pee so bad.” As far as the content is concerned,
any child who is not afraid of the dark certainly will be after
experiencing this book! The ogre in particular is a horrifyingly
grotesque creature who utters the most terrifying threats: “Rose, I
have these terrible urges / ... / I’ll munch you and crunch you, / my
dear sweet Rose.” The ending (thankfully?) is bland and anticlimactic.
Rose turns on the light, exclaims “And now, how wonderful, I can
pee,” and goes back to sleep.

In fairness it should be noted that this book is listed as a
translation (presumably by the author, since no other credit is given),
so perhaps it worked more successfully in the original French. However,
the English-language version is not recommended.