Andra
Rozentals
Andra
Rozentals lives in Chicago with her husband Erik and
son Nikolas. Niki (as Mommy and Daddy call him) is Andra and
Erik’s first child and arrived into the world just as she
was completing her first book, “It’s Easy Being Green.”
Andra
Rozentals was inspired to write
“It’s Easy Being Green”
due to
the impact global warming is having on our planet. She
created the vegetable characters Bushie Broccoli, Mushie
Mushroom, Pepi Pepper and Crunchie Carrot a few years ago.
They sat on the page waiting for a story to tell. After
viewing the documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth” the
vegetable gang awoke from their slumber to show children the
simple steps they can take to make a positive impact on
their environment.
To learn
more about the book go to
www.AndraRozentals.com
PageOneLit.com: Where did you grow up and was reading and writing a part
of your life? Who were your earliest influences and why?
Andra
Rozentals:
I grew up just outside of Milwaukee in Franklin, Wisconsin. I vividly
remember the summer when I was just learning to read. I thought it was
just about the most exciting thing ever! I remember reading the Dr.
Seuss books “Cat in the Hat” and “Green Eggs and Ham.”
Dr. Seuss is truly one of the great children’s book illustrators. The
uniqueness of his magical characters and the detail he can weave into a
page brings his stories to life. His books certainly have had an impact
on me both as a child and now as I revisit them from an adult
perspective. One of my favorites as an adult reader of Seuss is “The
Lorax.” Many years before global warming and being environmentally
responsible were topics of discussion, Dr. Seuss wrote this story about
what can occur when you disrupt the balance of Mother Nature. It was
quite insightful.
PageOneLit.com: What inspired your new children's book "It's Easy Being
Green"?
Andra
Rozentals: The idea for the story actually started over two years ago. The four
vegetable characters in the book Bushie Broccoli, Crunchie Carrot,
Mushie Mushroom and Pepi Pepper came to life on paper in 2005. I had
created these fun, colorful characters for a children's book, but I was
struggling to find a story that matched the endearment that I had for
this vegetable gang of four. So I just filed the characters away until
there were two sources of inspiration that really pulled the story out
of me. The first came from the documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth.”
After viewing the film I had this epiphany and knew instantly that the
vegetable characters would tell a story with an environmental theme. The
second source of inspiration was discovering I was pregnant with my
first child. This really fueled my desire to pass along a story to my
child about being environmentally responsible.
PageOneLit.com: What makes "It's Easy Being Green" different from other
children's books?
Andra
Rozentals:
What makes
this book different is that it's not only parents teaching kids but kids
teaching parents as well. As the kids learn about the environment they
start prodding their parents to
also take action. Kids
are reminding their parents to turn off lights and asking them to
recycle. The story passes an important message about our earth onto the
next generation.
PageOneLit.com: Who did the illustrations for "It's Easy Being Green"?
Andra
Rozentals: I created the vegetable characters and did all of the illustrations in
the book. I have been drawing and creating characters for as long as I
can remember. My hope was to one day incorporate some of those
characters into a children's story. The characters in "It's Easy Being
Green" come from a culmination of many years of "doodling."
PageOneLit.com: Your characters in "It's Easy Being Green" are very
original ala Bushie Broccoli - Talk about a few of these characters and
what inspired their names.
Andra
Rozentals: Bushie Broccoli, Crunchie Carrot, Pepi Pepper and Mushie Mushroom are
really "vegetable environmentalists." Through their interactions with
the brother and sister main characters in the story, Larisa and Alex,
they teach without “preaching” about how to be environmentally
responsible.
As I mentioned earlier I created these characters a few years back.
Although I had a Carrot, a Broccoli, a Mushroom and a Red Pepper I had
not named the characters. While writing the story, my husband, who
ironically never eats vegetables, named all of the characters for me.
Perhaps he could more easily give a name and hence a personality to a
vegetable because he will never eat one!
PageOneLit.com: What do you hope to achieve with "It's Easy Being
Green"?
Andra
Rozentals: I hope that the readers of the book will find that it is really simple
to make some small changes to make our environment a "greener" place.
Bushie, Mushie, Crunchie & Pepi bring some humor to the story so I hope
that parents and their children can have fun learning about the
environment.
I understand that some experts cite that the present situation with
global warming is critical and impossible to reverse, however I believe
that the situation is not futile. We need to educate our children to be
part of the solution and for them to understand that their little
efforts count. I would hate for our children to feel that "I am just one
person. I can't make a difference." I am by no means an environmental
expert, but my belief is that what we do now, what we do today, will
influence the future climate of the earth that our children inhabit.
That is why I wrote the book. For our children to be part of the
solution in the choices they make today.
PageOneLit.com: What did you learn from writing "It's Easy Being Green"?
Andra
Rozentals: I learned what a strong impact a story can have on a child. I initially
wrote the book to give my vegetable characters a platform to tell a
story. I wanted it to be fun, but yet to have a more global meaning for
kids. What I was not expecting was the feedback that I received from
parents on the book. Parents tell me that their children are now turning
off lights in the house and reminding them to do the same. They want to
learn more about recycling. They ask about planting trees and about
car-pooling. Kids want to help and get involved after they read this
story.
PageOneLit.com: What's next?
Andra
Rozentals: I would like to write a second book continuing on the environmental
theme. You can only put so much in one children's book and in an attempt
to keep it simple, "It's Easy Being Green" addresses only a few points
about what kids can do to be more environmentally responsible. There is
certainly more to say on the subject. I have other vegetable characters
that didn't make it into this book. I created a Cauliflower and also a
Leek that are still nameless, but wonderful characters on paper. I would
love to see the characters come to life in animated form as well. I can
vividly see how their personalities would emerge in that medium.
PageOneLit.com: What was the last book you read?
Andra
Rozentals: The last book I read was "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb." I read that today
and yesterday and the day before yesterday. It is a children's book that
I read to my son Nikolas. Although he is only 5 months old he giggles
and laughs every time at the refrain of the monkeys in the story as they
repeat the lines "Dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum". So it is a must read
every day!
I do hope to finish reading a "grown-up" book this year. I currently
have the latest Harry Potter sitting on my nightstand. I am also halfway
through Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat", but ever since I had the
baby sleep takes precedence over reading. I may just stick to poetry
this year, as it will give me a quick fix of something besides
children’s stories. ee cummings is one of my favorites.
PageOneLit.com: Do you have any hobbies? What are they? How do they
enhance your writing?
Andra
Rozentals: Gardening is one of my hobbies. More specifically "roof-top gardening."
I live in the city of Chicago and hence do all of my gardening atop my
rooftop deck. I am trying to master the art of growing whatever I can in
containers. I grow grasses and flowers and of course vegetables.
Tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant. I even grew a cantaloupe up there once. I
also have many varieties of peppers. Red peppers, jalapeno peppers,
banana peppers and green peppers. Pepi Pepper would be proud. I do a lot
of my writing and drawing up on my rooftop. Being able to escape the
city in my little garden oasis gives me a place to write and draw and
enhances this experience for me.
