Angelina's Concertina

About the Book

This is a work of imagination, inspiration and musical origination born from my own personal childhood growing up with parents who performed Polka music in their Authentic Polish style throughout Toledo, Ohio and the Midwest. As a child, I was introduced to ballrooms, bars, and festival backyards,listening, watching and absorbing their music. Bridging together what I saw, heard and felt in rounds of social interactions of people applauding the musicians, people criticizing the musicians, seeing my parents up on stage and knowing them behind the scenes. My parents musically paved a very rough road in the 70s and 80s leaving a trail for others to peruse with only the social media back then of word-of-mouth, live performances, 8-tracks, cassettes and album covers.

About the Author

About the author: Gina Cialkoszewski-Kabat (pronounced Chalk-a zes-key, Cabot) always wanted to write a children’s book. She is an accomplished author, editor, photographer and video journalist in Northeast Wisconsin. This work is more than just another accomplishment; it is testament to believing in herself and rewriting her own personal history. She was raised in Toledo, Ohio and since the age of 17 has called Wisconsin home. She lives with her husband Jon and two young daughters in a house filled with music. Occasionally, they all go polka dancing together. Once in awhile she’ll even play her drums. About the illustrator: Courtney Matthies lives in Kiel, Wisconsin and attends school at Marian University. She is majoring in Education and English. She has been drawing cartoons since she was eight. She enjoys walking her neighbors' dogs, stand-up paddle surfing, and reading. Her computer's name is Alister.