Syosset plays special role in sisters Idina Menzel, Cara Mentzel new children's book
Sisters Idina Menzel and Cara Mentzel have written a new children's book, "Proud Mouse." Credit: John Russo
Sisters Idina Menzel and Cara Mentzel, who grew up in Syosset, have written a second children’s picture book, “Proud Mouse.” It features them as colorful mice in elementary school and hearkens back to Cara’s quest to embrace her own talents when her older sibling had such an enormous one.
The release follows their first children’s book, “Loud Mouse,” which focused on Menzel’s struggle to know how much attention to bring to herself as she grew up with a distinctive singing voice. Menzel, 52, starred on Broadway in “Rent,” “Wicked,” and “If/Then,” on TV in the series “Glee,” and most recently plays Adam Sandler’s wife in the Netflix film “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.”
Sisters Idina Menzel and Cara Mentzel have written a new children's book, "Proud Mouse." Credit: Jaclyn Sinquett, ©Disney Enterprises, Inc.
But in the world of children and families, Menzel is best known as the voice of Princess Elsa in Disney’s “Frozen” and “Frozen 2” animated movies. If “Frozen” were transferred to the real world, Mentzel would be the Princess Anna to Menzel’s Princess Elsa. Mentzel, 49, who kept the original spelling of the family’s last name, is a teacher and literacy specialist, which is why the sisters, who currently live around the corner from each other in Los Angeles, thought they would be uniquely matched to write children’s books, they say.
“We always had an idea to have two books, companion books, because they are about two sisters. The first book, ‘Loud Mouse,’ definitely tells the story of more of my character, Dee,” Menzel says, with Dee being a nickname some friends call her. “Her journey, her need to figure out how much space to take up in the world with her talent and her big voice, literally and figuratively. That was territory that I thought was important to explore. The second book is more about Cara, who is the younger sister.”
A STORY FOR ALL SIBLINGS
In “Proud Mouse” (Disney Publishing Worldwide, $17.99), Cara Lee is presenting herself to the world during her first day at the school that Dee also attends, along with fellow students who are different types of animals. “People are seeing her through the lens of Dee’s little sister, and she has to navigate what it means to be Cara Lee in a world with Dee,” Mentzel says. “You have to do a little work to figure out what makes you, you when you’re growing up adjacent to somebody like that.”
The hardcover, 48-page book is geared to ages 3 to 7. Its story can resonate with any siblings who are navigating their path to define themselves as separate people, the sisters say. “All these complicated feelings that go with just us really leaning into who we are. I think that’s really what both books are about,” Menzel says.
With that said, Menzel took the opportunity to praise Mentzel’s talents. “She, for me, is the rock star. I was the muse, I came up with some of the ideas, but she’s really the talented writer in my eyes. And she’s also been the teacher who is another one of our heroes in society. Her connection and her understanding of language and age-appropriate language for kids was very important to me. I just didn’t want it to be this celebrity written children’s book and have no street cred.”
Mentzel introduces kids to “big words” in the books, such as unprecedented and resonated. “I love language and I love exposing kids to language, whether they’re great big words or great small words,” Mentzel says. The sisters are also not above weaving in what they called a “butt joke” — in the first book, the mouse Dee is so carried away by her singing that her moving butt accidentally erases the writing on the classroom blackboard.
“That goes over very well with the young kids,” Menzel says. Menzel and Mentzel will do readings, book signings and even sing a duet called “The Loud Mouse Song” that was written for the books.
A NOD TO SYOSSET
The books are based on the sisters’ experiences attending the Syosset School District; Menzel is an alum of the Syosset High School Class of 1989, Mentzel is 1992. The elementary school teacher in the books, Miss Pink, is named for Menzel’s fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Pincus, whom Menzel called “my favorite teacher of all time.”
The dedication in “Proud Mouse” mentions Pincus, along with Menzel’s music teacher at Baylis Elementary School, Mr. Roper. “He gave me my first role, in the fourth-grade play, which was Dorothy in 'The Wizard of Oz,'” Menzel says. She called that “prescient,” given that she went on to famously play Elphaba, the green-skinned Wicked Witch of the West, in “Wicked” on Broadway.
Both of those Syosset teachers have died, Menzel says. The other teachers in the dedication are teacher friends of Mentzel’s from Colorado, where she lived before moving to California about 18 months ago.
In a Zoom interview, the sisters reminisce about using hairbrushes as microphones as they sang around the house growing up. “My grandfather — Grandpa Nat — Nathan, he used to tell stories and sing and dance with me and introduce me from behind the couch. Pop up and we’d put on shows,” Menzel says.
Says Mentzel: “He’d say, ‘Introducing …’”
“He’d say, ‘Ladies and Germs,’” Menzel added.
Menzel says she first realized her talent was about more than just impromptu performances in their Long Island living room when she was about age 7.
“Our parents took us up to the Catskill mountains, kind of ‘Dirty Dancing’ style. We went to one of those hotels there with all of their friends. We put on a talent show in this little day camp. I sang ‘The Way We Were’ on stage. I guess all the parents sort of turned and looked at my parents and said, in their glorious Long Island accents, “Stu-ey, you gotta get Idina some voice lessons,’” Menzel says, imitating the accent.
“I remember it to this day the adrenaline, the sort of flush in my skin and my face. It was not just nerves; it was, I believe, excitement because I was on the precipice of something. I remember that distinctly. I had something special to share. I wasn’t sure how it would be or in what capacity, but I had a knowingness there.”
Both women are married with sons they joke have “aged out” of their target picture book audience. Mentzel has Avery, 25, and Jake, 20, and a stepson, Oscar, 27. Menzel has Walker, who is 14. The sisters' parents, who divorced when Menzel and Mentzel were 15 and 12, no longer live on Long Island.
They plan to write a third children’s book, they say. They say it might be about how children often will laugh at inappropriate times. Their working title? “Laugh Out Loud Mouse.”
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.
