At age 6, Idina Menzel already knew she wanted to be a performer when she grew up. But her sister—like most young people—had to search for her passions, which led her into education.
Menzel, a Tony Award-winning singer and actor known for roles in Frozen, Wicked, and Rent, remembers the first time she saw her younger sister Cara Mentzel at the helm of a classroom—and knew it was what she was meant to do.
“I had never really heard her speak with such confidence and assertiveness,” recalled Menzel. “I said to her after, ‘Oh my god, a teacher has to perform as well, every day.’ You have to find nuance and new things to be passionate and exuberant in front of students–to stand up and use your voice.”
Menzel (who dropped the “t” in Mentzel for her stage name) collaborated with Mentzel—a writer and a former elementary school teacher—on a series of children’s books based on their lives and sisterhood. Loud Mouse came out in September 2022; its sequel Proud Mouse comes out this September. They spoke about their collaboration during a June 24 session at the American Library Association’s 2023 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Chicago.
“When I wanted to write a children’s book, I felt like I not only wanted but needed my beloved sister to help me,” Menzel said. Menztel has a master’s degree in elementary education with an emphasis on children’s literacy. Her first book, the memoir Voice Lessons: A Sisters Story about her relationship with Menzel, came out in 2017.
The new books center around a pair of mice, sisters Dee and Cara Lee. “I like to tell the kids, ‘Because when we were little, we were mice,’” Mentzel joked.
In Loud Mouse, Dee—based on Menzel—has a big voice and must find the courage to be seen and heard. “Actually knowing how much space it’s OK to take up, especially when you’re younger, is a complicated feeling for kids,” Menzel said. During the session, Menzel led the audience in Dee’s musical refrain from the series: “With my tail in my hand, my whiskers out proud, I sing it big, I sing it la-la-la-la-loud.”
In Proud Mouse, Cara Lee is proud of her sister’s gifts but frustrated at being compared to her, which leads her to be independent and find her own interests. The book adds on to Dee’s refrain from Loud Mouse—this time, sung by Cara Lee: “I’m just gonna be me. Who else would I be? I’m just gonna be me. Who else would I be? Me, me, me, me, me, me, me.”
In the book, Cara Lee carries around a notebook, but the authors decided against determining if she grows up to be a writer like her real-life counterpart.
“Because we all become a lot of things as we grow up,” Mentzel says. “And we wanted kids to feel like they didn’t need to choose something. They just needed to be curious.”
