Author Archives: rosinskynatalie

Crushes Now and Then

Posted on February 1, 2019

Heartthrob or heartache? Sudden attraction or slow connection? With Valentine’s Day approaching, and its card exchanges popular even in some pre-schools, the recent publication of Svetlana Chmakova’s Crush (2018) was aptly timed. This continuation of the author/illustrator’s award-winning Berrybrook Middle … Continue reading →

Posted in graphic novels, story collection | Tagged 1960s, Awkward, Beach Boys, Beatles, Berrybrook Middle School series, Brave, bullying, Crush, crushes, friends, I Am Young, M. Dean, middle school, music, Pet Sounds, Svetlana Chmakova, teenagers, tweens, Valentine's Day, young love | Leave a comment

Timely Questions

Posted on January 1, 2019

At the start of a new year, in our sometimes Kafkaesque world, it is good to realize that not all tales from the inner city are bad. What exactly do I mean by that remark? I hope you will be … Continue reading →

Posted in graphic novels, picture books | Tagged animals, animals in cities, bureaucracy, canine history, cats, creativity, dogs, Franz Kafka, graphic adaptation, human imagination, humans and animals, In the Penal Colony, judicial system, justice, Kafkaesque: Fourteen Stories, legal system, New Year, Peter Kuper, Shaun Tan, Tales from Outer Suburbia, Tales from the Inner City, The Hunger Artist, The Metamorphosis, Trumpesque | Leave a comment

Great Graphic Gifts

Posted on December 1, 2018

Giving “experiences” rather than “things” is a trend this winter holiday season, making graphic literature a fashionable, two-for-one joy for the tween-and-up readers on your gift list. They can hold a volume in their hands, actively scanning between text and … Continue reading →

Posted in graphic novels, hybrid books | Tagged Auschwitz, Brian Selznick, concentration camps, demonizing enemies, displaced persons camps, elves, Eugene Yelchin, goblins, holiday gifts, Holocaust, humor, hybrid graphic novel, hybrid novel, Judaism, M.T. Anderson, music, opera, spying, survivors, The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, Vesper Stamper, war, What the Night Sings | Leave a comment

Happy Holidays? Family Woes and Wins

Posted on November 7, 2018

Santa Claus may not be this season’s biggest holiday myth. A more troubling fantasy here in North America may be the myth of the perfectly happy, affluent family—one celebrating its winter holidays with big smiles in a bright, cheerful home … Continue reading →

Posted in graphic novels, memoir | Tagged 1950s, abandonment, alcoholism, and Dealt with Family Addiction, autobiography, bullying, California, Chinese immigrants, Christmas, David Small, drug addiction, father, Good Night Monkey Boy, grandparents, Hey Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother Found My Father and, holiday myths, Home After Dark, homophobia, Jarrett J. Krosoczka, Lunch Lady series, memoir, mother, Mother's Day, racism, Stitches, suicide, Worcester Massachusetts | Leave a comment

After the Pittsburgh Synagogue Massacre

Posted on October 30, 2018

What do we tell school-aged children who see, read, or hear news about this past weekend’s massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue? You already may have had to deal with initial reactions, but I have some print resources to … Continue reading →

Posted in graphic novels | Tagged A Family Secret, Adolph Hitler, Amsterdam, Anne Frank House, anti-Semitism, complicit citizens, elected government leaders, elections, Eric Heuvel, German Jewish refugee, Holocaust, local police, Nazis, Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, resistance, Resistance Museum of Amsterdam, Resistance Museum of Friesland, school-aged children, sixteen-year olds, The Search, Tree of Life synagogue, twelve-year olds, World War II | Leave a comment

Beyond Halloween Thrills

Posted on October 1, 2018

Heralding Halloween, plastic ghosts and ghouls materialized on some front porches back in September. This horde will rapidly increase–adding movie monsters, comic book creatures, and graveyard trappings—as October 31 approaches. Yet the truly terrifying may not be what we see … Continue reading →

Posted in graphic novels, story collection | Tagged Baba Yaga's Assistant, blended families, Bluebeard, Emily Carroll, fairy tales, fantasy, Halloween, horror, Laurie Halse Anderson, Marika McCoola, rape, recovering from rape, Red Riding Hood, sexual violence, Speak, Speak: The Graphic Novel, stories, supernatural, suspense, terror, Through the Woods | Leave a comment

Immigrant Generations

Posted on September 1, 2018

Have you been busy calming your young people’s new school or classroom jitters? In my senior citizen circles, this duty falls to grandparents as well as parents and school staff. It can be even more frightening or puzzling for students … Continue reading →

Posted in graphic novels, picture books | Tagged "boat people", A Different Pond, art, back to school, Bao Phi, communication, Dan Santat, Drawn Together, family history, fishing, grandparents, immigrant, immigration policies, language barrier, memoir, Minh Le, Minneapolis, North Vietnam, President Trump, refugee camp, refugees, Thai-American, Thi Bui, Vietnamese War, Vietnamese-American, working class | Leave a comment