Amanda Peet co-authors Hanukkah children’s picture book
Actress Amanda Peet, right, teamed up with writer Andrea Troyer to pen "Dear Santa, Love, Rachel Rosenstein." Credit: Actress Amanda Peet, right, teamed up with writer Andrea Troyer to pen “Dear Santa, Love, Rachel Rosenstein.”
When the wives of the two “Game of Thrones” co-creators were in Ireland with their families during taping, actress Amanda Peet and writer Andrea Troyer were thrown together so often that they wound up writing a Hanukkah-themed children’s picture book called “Dear Santa, Love, Rachel Rosenstein” (Doubleday Books for Young Readers, $17.99).
The duo will be reading and signing the book at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 3 at the Barnes & Noble in the Country Glen Shopping Center, 91 Old Country Rd., Carle Place.
The main character, Rachel Rosenstein, is determined to celebrate Christmas even though her family is Jewish. She writes Santa a letter, visits him at the mall and covertly decorates her house on Christmas Eve. As Rachel wrestles with her culture, customs and love of sparkly Christmas ornaments, she gains a better understanding of her identity. The book is meant for ages 3 to 7.
Peet and her husband, David Benioff, are Jewish. Troyer isn’t, but her husband, Daniel Brett Weiss, is. Both women are moms — Peet, 43, has three kids, ages 8, 5 and 1, and Troyer, also 43, has two, ages 5 and 7.
The two women were shopping for Hanukkah presents in Ireland together when Peet mentioned that she was dreading talking to her kids about Christmas. “They were asking why we couldn’t have a tree, why we weren’t decorating our house, why we couldn’t have Santa come to our house,” Peet says.
Says Troyer, “I thought it was a great idea for a book. I really liked how adamant Amanda was from the beginning that the parents wouldn’t make concessions.” In the end, the Rachel character discovers that there are other children who don’t celebrate Christmas and that it’s not the end of the world.
A portion of the book proceeds will be donated to Seeds of Peace, which brings children from conflicting Mideast countries together at a summer camp in Maine in an effort to encourage understanding between the nations. “We’re at such a critical moment right now,” Peet says, and efforts to humanize each other’s enemies are essential.
The book, illustrated by Christine Davenier, is the women’s first children’s book. Peet has starred in movies including “The Way, Way Back,” and her second season of the HBO show “Togetherness” launches in February. Troyer is a writer who received an MFA from the University of California, Irvine.
For more information about the event, call the store at 516-741-9850.
Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.
