Author Archives: rosinskynatalie

Summer Reading–To Sip or Chew

Posted on May 28, 2018

What kinds of reading will you do this summer? “Summer reading” can have very different meanings. Will yours be hummingbird sips of brief pieces, pages of mainly light-hearted material scanned in between other outdoor activities? Or will you and yours … Continue reading →

Posted in biographies, graphic novels, manga, picture books | Tagged Agnodice, Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World, California Dreamin':Cass Elliot Before the Mamas & the Papas, Cheryl Bridges, Christine Jorgensen, Clementine Delait, Delia Akeley, Emma Williams, Footnotes in Gaza, Frances Glessner Lee, Gaza, Giorgina Reid, Hedy Lamarr, heroic women, Ibrahim Quraishi, Joe Sacco, Josephine Baker, Katia Krafft, Las Mariposas, Lozen, Mae Jemison, manga, Margaret Hamilton, Message to Adolf, Message to Adoph, Montana Kane, Naziq al-Abid, Nelly Bly, Nzinga, Osamu Tezuka, Palestine, Penelope Bagieu, Sonita Alizadeh, summer reading, Temple Grandin, Tezuka Osamu, The Story of Hurry, Tove Jansson, women's biographies, women's history, Wu Zetian | Leave a comment

Picturing Butterflies

Posted on May 1, 2018

A brand new, sumptuous picture book biography is my focus today. Its illustrations refreshed my winter-weary eyes, even as its crystal-clear language movingly revealed an exceptional woman, from girlhood through old age. And, whether by remarkable coincidence or fate, my … Continue reading →

Posted in biographies, picture books | Tagged 17th-century women, art history, butterfly metamorphosis, Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis, Don Larsson, entomology, Jeyaraney Kathirithamby, John Jacques Audubon, Joyce Sidman, Julie Paschkis, Kim Todd, Margarita Engle, Maria Merian, Maria Sibylla Merian: Artist/Scientist/Adventurer, naturalist, Peter Kuper, Ruins, Sarah B. Pomeroy, science, Scott Pakudaitis, Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian, Surinam, Susanna Centlivre, The Bassett Table, The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science, women artists, women scientists | Leave a comment

On Earth Day: Poetry Embracing Science

Posted on April 21, 2018

I was shocked—an editor had just told me that poetry had no place in science books! This young man had been assigned by the publisher to shepherd my completed work-for-hire, about watersheds for middle school readers, into print. The poetry … Continue reading →

Posted in articles | Tagged A Place in Space:: Ethics Aesthetics and Watersheds, Anna Dumont, Beckie Prange, Beth Krommes, Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow, Cathie, Cathie Felstead, Chris Brubeck, Christopher Wormell, Convergence, Damia Lewis, Dirt: The Scoop on Soil, e.e. cummings, Earth Day, Earthshake: Poems from the Ground Up, Frederica von Stade, Gary Snyder, J. Patrick Lewis, Joyce Sidman, Light: Shadows Mirrors and Rainbows, Lisa Westberg Peters, Matthew John, Patty Schlutt, picture books, poetry, River of Song, River of Words: Young Poets and Artists on the Nature of Things, Rocks: Hard Soft Smooth and Rough, science, Sheree Boyd, Song of the River Boatman and Other Pond Poems, Swan Song: Poems of Extinction, watersheds | Leave a comment

Being Brave and Bold

Posted on April 1, 2018

Awkward middle schoolers gaining confidence and becoming brave— two great graphic novels about this transition are my focus today, inspired by current events. How do young people learn to be brave and bold? I have been thinking about this since … Continue reading →

Posted in graphic novels, manga | Tagged art club, Awkward, Be Heard! A Comic for Student Rights, Brave, bullying, civil rights movement, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Crush, Dr. Martin Luther King, Great Graphic Novels for Teens, I Am Alfonso Jones, manga, March Book One, March Book Three, March Book Two, March for Our Lives, middle school, Night School, Parkland Florida shooting, Representative John Lewis, science club, Svetlana Chmakova, The Silence of Our Friends, Yolanda Renee King | Leave a comment

Of Mice and Middle School

Posted on March 1, 2018

Babymouse is growing up! I recently learned that the perky heroine of twenty graphic novels for young kids started this school year as a middle schooler. Yet the safe haven that school provides this fantasy character is not what students actually … Continue reading →

Posted in graphic novels, hybrid books | Tagged Babymouse, Babymouse Tales from the Locker, Forgive Me Leonard Peacock, friendship, Gail Sidonie Sobat, growing up, guns, humorous books, hybrid novel, Jamie's Got a Gun, Jennifer L. Holm, Kerlan Award, Lights Camera Middle School!, Matthew Holm, Matthew Quick, Miss Communication, Mouseketeers, Parkland Florida, school shootings, Shaun David Hutchinson, Spyder Yardley-Jones, teen age shooter, Violent Ends: A Novel in Seventeen Points of View | Leave a comment

In War and Peace

Posted on February 1, 2018

What happens when peacetime resembles war? I will be pondering this question in coming weeks as we celebrate Black History Month, also known as African-American History Month here in the U.S.A. This year there will be a special focus on the … Continue reading →

Posted in graphic novels, war | Tagged "Hamlet", African-American History Month, All-American Boys, Amadou Diallo, Angie Thomas, Anthony Baez, Black History month, Black Lives Matter, Brendan Kiely, Canaan White, Damian Duffy, Eleanor Bumpurs, Harlem, Henry Dumas, hip-hop "Hamlet", How It Went Down, I Am Alfonso Jones, Jason Reynolds, John Jennings, Kekla Magoon, Kindred, Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, Max Brooks, Michael Stewart, New York City, Octavia Butler, police violence, racism, Sergeant Henry Johnson, Stacey Robinson, teenager, The Harlem Hellfighters, The Hate U Give, Tony Medina, World War I | Leave a comment

Celebrating a New Year

Posted on January 1, 2018

Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. These words from a Tennyson poem are one traditional New Year’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, comics | Tagged African American, Afro-Latino, anti-globalism, Bat Man, Chinese Superman, Chinese-American, DC comics, DC superheroes, diverse superheroes., Flash, Gene Luen Yang, globalism, I-Ching, January 1, Justice League of China, Kamala Khan, Kenneth Grahame, Kij Johnson, Kong Kenan, Lunella Lafayette, Miles Morales, Moon Girl, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Ms. Marvel, Muslim, New Super-Man Volume 1: Made in China, New Super-Man Volume 2: Coming to American, New Super-Man Volume 3: Equilibrium, New Year celebration, Pakistani-American, President Trump, rewritten classics, Richard Friend, Shanghai, Sonny Liew, Spider Man, teenage Superman, Tennyson, The River Bank: A Sequel to the Wind in the Willows, The Shadow Hero, The Wind in the Willows, Viktor Bogdanovic, Wonder Woman | Leave a comment