Category Archives: biographies

Outdoor Art with Heart

Posted on May 28, 2020 by rosinskynatalie

Heartfelt messages to neighbors and neighborhood heroes have brightened many of today’s pandemic city views. Drawing with chalk, kids have decorated sidewalks, driveways, and even walls with scenes and words to celebrate people and events such as birthdays and graduations. … Continue reading →

Posted in biographies, Books, picture books | Tagged A Map into the World, AIDS, Bill Thomson, celebrations, Chalk, chalk art, Covid-19, grandmother, Hmong, Hmong American, Kao Kalia Yang, Kay A. Haring, Keith Haring, Keith Haring The Boy Who Just Kept Drawing, Khoa Le, Minnesota Book Award, neighborhood, neighborhood heroes, neighbors, outdoor art, outdoor artist, Pandemic, pop art, refugees, Robert Neubecker, Seo Kim, sibling death, sidewalk art, sidewalk chalk drawing, story cloth, street art, The Art of Chalk Techniques and Inspiration for Creating Art with Chalk, The Most Beautiful Thing, The Shared Room, Tracy Lee Sturm, Xee Reiter | 2 Comments

Life’s Soundtracks

Posted on August 1, 2019 by rosinskynatalie

Which song could be the soundtrack of your life today? This question is posed to the 8th grade characters in Operatic (2019), a wonderful new graphic novel combining music history and biography with smart insights into the complex tween and … Continue reading →

Posted in biographies, graphic novels | Tagged 8th grade, Blinded by the Light, British, Bruce Springsteen, bullying, Byron Eggenschwiler, Canada, friendship, genderfluid, Greetings from Bury Park, homophobia, Kyo Maclear, Maria Callas, Master Class, memoir, middle school, movie, music, music history, opera, Operatic, Pakistani, rock music, Sarfraz Manzoor, soundtrack, teenager, teens, U.S. | Leave a comment

Some “Tree-mendous” Books

Posted on April 1, 2019 by rosinskynatalie

Every day—not just Earth Day (April 22) or Arbor Day (April 26)–should be “tree-mendous.” I reached this conclusion as world-wide student protests about climate change overlapped last month with my reading of novelist Richard Powers’ The Overstory (2018). Powers’ epic work about the fabulous … Continue reading →

Posted in biographies, Books, graphic novels, picture books | Tagged A Log's Life, Andy Hirsch, Annie Proulx, Arbor Day, Aurelia Fronty, Barkskins, Bob Staake, Branching Out: How Trees are Part of Our World, Cynthia Alonso, David Mitchell, deforestation, Diane Muldrow, Donna Jo Napoli, Earth Day, Elif Shafak, forest ecosystem, Franck Prevot, Future Library, H. Joseph Hopkins, Han Kang, Harriet Birkenshaw, Iris Volant, Jason Howard, Jeanette Winter, Jen Cullerton Johnson, Jill McEllmurry, Joan Marie Galat, Kadir Nelson, Kate Sessions, Kenya, Kevin Byron, Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and The Trees of Kenya, Margaret Atwood, Monica Russo, Richard Powers, Robin Brickman, San Diego, Seeds of Change: Planting a Path to Peace, Shel Silverstein, Sjon, Sonia Lynn Sadler, The Giving Tree, The Overstory, The Tree Lady: How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever, tree species, Treecology: 30 Activities and Observations for Esploring the World of Trees and and Forests, Trees comic book series, Trees: Kings of the Forest, Under the Canopy: Trees Around the World, Wangari Maathai, Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted Millions of Trees, Warren Ellis, Watari's Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa, We Planted a Tree, Wendy Pfeffer | Leave a comment

Summer Reading–To Sip or Chew

Posted on May 28, 2018 by rosinskynatalie

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 by rosinskynatalie

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

States of Mind

Posted on December 1, 2017 by rosinskynatalie

What is your state of mind right now? Festive . . . as you think of upcoming winter holidays? Fearful . . . as you contemplate current political events and crises? Or are you calm and content because you enjoy … Continue reading →

Posted in biographies, picture books | Tagged Ana Juan, Andrew Standing Soldier, Ann Nolan Clark, architect, artist biography, Christmas, Duncan Tonitiuh, Eve Chwast, Frida, Frida Kahlo, Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos, Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras, George Lawrence, Georgia O'Keefe, Grandma's Latkes, Hanukkah, Jeanette Winters, John Parra, Jonah Winters, Malka Drucker, Monica Brown, My Name is Georgia: A Portrait, Native American picture books, Native American Picture Books of Change, New Mexico, painter, Rebecca C. Benes, Rosemary Zibart, The Hen of Wahpeton, The Night of Las Posadas, The Slim Butte Raccoon, The World is Not a Rectangle: A Portrait of Architect Zaha Hadid, Tomie de Paola, True Brit--Beatrice 1940, winter holidays, Zaha Hadid | Leave a comment

Not Just “For the Birds”

Posted on August 1, 2017 by rosinskynatalie

Saying something is “for the birds” is an old-fashioned put-down. It means “not worth much” and actually refers to the horse droppings on city streets that birds once ate. (So my saying that President Trump’s policies are “for the birds” … Continue reading →

Posted in biographies, graphic novels, picture books | Tagged Annette LeBlanc Cate, anxiety, Audubon On the Wings of the World, Audubon Society, bird-watching, birds, Birds Art Life, Birds of America, book collaboration, claire ligne, climate change, Depression, Etienne Gilfillan, Fabien Grolleau, French immigrant, Jerem Royer, John James Audubon, Kenard Pak, Kyo Maclear, Look Up! Bird-Watching in Your Own Back Yard, ornithologist, The Fog | Leave a comment

Going Nuclear

Posted on March 1, 2017 by rosinskynatalie

Going nuclear? A recent, award-winning picture book; another acclaimed, older picture book; and some classic and in-progress graphic novels remind us just how terrible this military choice has been. These works center upon the World War II atomic devastation of … Continue reading →

Posted in biographies, graphic novels, manga, memoir, picture books, Uncategorized | Tagged A Cartoon History of Hiroshima, atom bomb, atomic power plant, Barefoot Gen, Caren Stelson, comics, Depression, Fukushima nuclear power plant, Hiroshima, Ichi-F: A Worker's Graphic Memoir of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, Japan, Japanese Prime Minister Abe, Junko Morimoto, Kazuto Tatsuta, Keiji Nakasawa, My Hiroshima, non-violence, nuclear arsenal, nuclear disarmament, nuclear melt down, nuclear power plant, nuclear war, peace, Peace Garden, President Trump, Raina Telgemeier, Sachiko Yasui, Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor's Story, Silbert Honor Award, United States, World War II | Leave a comment

Emancipation and Inauguration–Days Old and New

Posted on February 1, 2017 by rosinskynatalie

Three award-winning picture books are my focus today. Read on. Life-altering changes brought by the stroke of a pen or the tick of a clock—the beginning of African-American History month brings many thoughts to mind. One is how the official … Continue reading →

Posted in biographies, graphic novels, picture books | Tagged African-American History Month, American Library Association award, Andrew Aydin, Ashley Bryan, business documents, business practices, Carole Boston Weatherford, civil rights, Congressman John R. Lewis, Emancipation Day, Fredi Williams Evans, Freedom in Congo Square, Freedom Over Me, Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, immigration, inauguration, Jonah Winter, Juneteenth, March Book Three, March Trilogy, music, My Name is James Madison Hemings, Nate Powell, National Book Award, New Orleans, President Trump, Presidents Day, protests, R. Gregory Christie, Sally Hemings, slavery, song, Terry Widener, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life, Thomas Jefferson, U.S. laws | Leave a comment

Twenty-first Century Genius

Posted on November 1, 2016 by rosinskynatalie

Two graphic novelists were among the twenty-three creative people recently awarded an annual MacArthur “Genius” grant, with its hefty prize money. The MacArthur Foundation “celebrates and inspires the creative potential of individuals through no-strings-attached fellowships.” I was delighted to see that … Continue reading →

Posted in biographies, graphic novels, weather | Tagged atom bomb, biography, Brian Selznick, Century Girl: 100 Years in the Life of Doris Eaton Ellis, Century Girl: 100 Years in the Life of Doris Eaton Travis, climate change, collage, copper plate etching, cyanotype, dance, Doris Eaton Travis, Elicia Castaldi, Erik Drooker, Gene Luen Yang, history of science, Hollywood, Jennifer L. Holm, Last Living Star of the Ziegfe, Last Living Star of the Ziegfeld Follies, Lauren Redniss, Marie Curie, McArthur "Genius" award, memoir, Nobel Prize, nuclear medicine, nuclear power accidents, Ozge Samanci, Peter Kuper, Pierre Curie, Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie A Tale of Love and Fallout, radioactivity, radium, science, Shaun Tan, TED Talk, Thunder & LIghtning: Weather Past Present and Future, weather, World War I, World War II, Ziegfeld Follies | Leave a comment