Author Archives: rosinskynatalie

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

At Play

Posted on July 31, 2018

With school supplies already on store shelves and in newspaper ads, autumn is looming! It is a good time to remember how valuable unstructured play and long summer days can be for our young people before they head back to … Continue reading →

Posted in graphic novels | Tagged 7th grade, 8th grade, African American, All Summer Long, Asian, Barbara Perez Marquez, cardboard boxes, Chad Sell, Cloud Jacobs, costumes, David Demeo, Dominican folklore, fairy tale characters, fantasy play, forming a band, friendship, gay families, gender identity, gender roles, Hope Larson, imaginative play, Jay Fuller, Katie Schenkel, Kostas Ntanos, Kris Moore, Manuel Betancourt, Michael Cole, middle school, mixed race families, Molly Muldoon, neighborhood, neighborhood play, psychological growth, role playing, social growth, The Cardboard Kingdom, thirteen year-olds, tweens, unstructured play, Vid Alliger | Leave a comment

Park It!

Posted on June 28, 2018

Bears and bison and wolves, oh my! A visit to Yellowstone National Park was one of June’s highlights for me. We spent most of that two day excursion gazing at the park’s many geological wonders—colorful crests and vivid mud pools … Continue reading →

Posted in graphic novels, picture books | Tagged "The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone", A Weird and Wild Beauty: The Story of Yellowstone The World's First National Park, Albert Peale, Annette Bay PImentel, Changing of the Guard: The Yellowstone Chronicles, dinosaurs, Empire of Shadows: The Epic Story of Yellowstone, Epsilon: A Yellowstone Wolf Story, Erin Peabody, George Black, grizzlies, grizzly bears, Jurassic, Lita Judge, Mountain Chef: How One Man Lost His Groceries Changed His Plans and Helped Cook Up the National Park Service, national park service history, predators, President Donald Trump, Rich Lo, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, Silvertip: A Year in the LIfe of a Yellowstone Grizzly, Smithsonian Museum, Stephen Mather, Ted Rechlin, Thomas Moran, Tie Sing, wolves, Yellowstone Moran: Painting the American West, Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park | Leave a comment