Rosalie G. Mendel

Rosalie G. Mendel was a children’s author whose books were published by Whitman Publishing Company of Racine, Wisconsin, during the 1910s and 1920s. Her work centered on animals, friendship, and gentle adventure, with titles including Polly and Spark, Spark, Robbie’s Dog on the Farm, The Story of Lady Rabbit, and My Book of Ten Fishes.

Her best-known books combine simple storytelling with an educational interest in the natural world. My Book of Ten Fishes, illustrated by Hazel Frazee, introduces young readers to creatures such as starfish, salmon, sharks, whales, and sardines, while the Spark books follow the adventures of a bull terrier and his animal friends.

Few biographical details about Mendel’s life are readily documented, but her surviving books show a writer closely associated with the richly illustrated animal stories that helped define popular children’s publishing in the early twentieth century.