Fall 2023      Volume 51, Number 4

Authors, Books, and Beyond: A Conversation with Barb Rosenstock
By Amina Chaudhri

Document: Column  

Introductory Paragraph:  Barb Rosenstock is a prolific creator of nonfiction picturebooks. Her biographies document the accomplishments of well-known historical figures such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Claude Monet, and Joe DiMaggio, and less iconic, but equally worthy people such as Nek Chand and Alice Paul. A consistent feature in all her works is that she finds something about her subjects that has usually escaped public attention, and that makes her subjects more human than heroic. Her most recent book, The Mystery of the Monarchs: How Kids, Teachers and Butterfly Fans Helped Fred and Norah Urquhart Track the Great Monarch Migration (2022),chronicles the work of a husband-and-wife entomologist team and all the citizen scientists they recruited in the 50-year project to tag and track monarch butterflies. As a result of this project, we now know that the monarchs migrate 3,000 miles from Mexico to as far north as Minnesota, and that they play a crucial role in pollination and habitat maintenance. I spoke with Barb Rosenstock about The Mystery of the Monarchs and all that went into its creation.

DOI:   https://doi.org/10.33600/IRCJ.51.4.2023.85

Page Numbers:   85-88