My girls live on milk. And I can not stand it. I have tried everything short of holding them down and shoving things into them to get something healthy and needed for their development and brains down to their belly’s. Now, they do like bananas, grapes, pears and other fruit. And they will eat carrots until their eyes turn orange. But none of this is consistent and none of it cancels out their continued desire for milk.
I am forever seeking advice, tools, and tricks to educate them on the goodness of foods. Much of it has failed.
So when I was contacted by the brilliant creator of Super Sprowtz, a Nutrition Education Series of books, I was thrilled! Books about vegetables with super powers? Written for kids? And colorfully illustrated to keep even the youngest tots attention?
I gleefully said, “YES, I will do whatever it takes to help you promote your books!”
I received, beautifully packaged with a wonderful hand drawn personalized note, my book, “I Am Brian Broccoli and I am Super Strong!” The girls jumped on it.
“What it is Mommy?”; “What is it about Mommy?”; “I want to be super strong!”
And we read, and read, and read. Until Katie and Sarah could almost tell me the story of how Brian Broccoli and his pack of Super Vegetable friends saved the farmer’s market from the Greasy Grease cart! And that night at dinner, as I said a little prayer that this would work…
My… girls…. ate… broccoli!!! I kid you not! This is not an embellishment for the sponsors liking. They really did! It had cheese on it, I will admit, but instead of watching it grow cold and sad on their plate while they ate their pears and pasta, they ate it! And then Sarah said, “It will make me super stwong wike Bwian Bwoccowi!” and then showed me her “smussels”. It was classic hysterical! And I was hooked!
In addition to my complete happiness that I found a tool out there that will not only educate my children about the importance of trying and eating their vegetables, but will actually make them want to eat them, the book includes nutritional information for parents and a recipe that I really did try! I loved it! This book features Super Strong Broccoli, Carrot and Mozzarella Salad – so YUM – but all of their wonderful recipes are available on SuperSprowtz.com.
Also on their site, you and you child can meet the Super Sprowtz – a wonderful way for your to introduce your child to them while you wait for your books to arrive – play games with your kids – featured now is Colby Carrot’s Super Sight Game – learn about the Heroes and Villians featured in the books, and, as mentioned, wonderful recipes!
And spend a few minutes to read why SuperSprowtz.com sends 18 cents per book sold to the amazing Hunt’s Point Alliance for Children.
I am so fascinated by these books and how they came to light that I took the rare opportunity to ask the creator, Radha Agrawal, some questions, which she was generous enough to answer for me!
The Interview
How did you come up with the idea of “Super Sprowtz?”
Super Sprowtz was inspired out of a menu I designed for my organic pizzeria, Slice, that my twin sister Miki and I own. We had so many kids coming in and asking questions about our different veggie toppings so I created a menu with vegetable characters to ‘veg-ucate’ them in a fun way! I started doing some research on what was out there for kids to learn about veggies and nutrition and realized there really wasn’t anything that was fun and engaging for kids that wasn’t preachy or boring or set on a farm or suburb where a city kid wouldn’t be able to relate to it. So I starting writing my own stories about super powered vegetable characters set in New York whose super powers were directly related to the nutritional benefit of the vegetable so kids would remember why each vegetable was good for them. I interviewed nutritionists, dieticians, child psychiatrists, primary school educators, and lots of frustrated parents and curious kids before I wrote the stories.
As a filmmaker and producer for 8 years, and as a restaurateur and fitness instructor, I wanted to combine food, wellness and film to excite and motivate the next generation to treat their bodies right! My goal from the beginning has been to do for nutrition what Sesame Street did for literacy and do it effectively and in an entertaining way.
We’re working on many different programs from spring and summer camps with yoga/cooking/exercise and science days with the Super Sprowtz, school assemblies, TV show pitches and other fun stuff! So we’ll have lots of different outlets to engage kids about vegetables and healthy living!
In your journey to share “Super Sprowtz” with the world, what would you say your biggest challenge was/is?
Sharing Super Sprowtz with the world is constantly a joy. Watching young children get excited about vegetables and knowing that they are better positioned to live a healthy life is my biggest reward. The biggest challenge has been learning how to slow down, take a breath and enjoy our success. The most important thing we can do for our children is to give them the gift of health. I hope we are making a difference for kids and families.
Do you have any plans to include more vegetables in the “Super Sprowtz” family?
Absolutely. Many more members of the family are coming soon. Stay tuned!
Which Sprout is your favorite?
This is like asking a mother to pick her favorite child – I can’t! I love them all. Each character has a unique personality that makes them so special. I can’t pick a favorite!
OK – so I am no Oprah, but I was really interested in the answers to these questions. Because if I am going to have an educational product in my home, I want the person who brought it to me to have a true passion for it, have the desire to continue it’s path, and draw my children in with character’s and story lines they can understand and latch onto. I think most mother’s want that as well!
I am sure you can already predict that I highly recommend the Super Sprowtz family of books to help you on your continual journey of getting healthy food and healthy habits into your child! A fun way to approach what can be a frustrating adventure for parents!I
Buy Them
You can purchase any of the amazing Super Sprowtz books at SuperSprowtz.com! They run a very reasonable range of $7.99 to $13.99 a book. And don’t forget to bookmark the site so that you can check in an know when the apparel, DVD’s and Apps are available as well!
The Giveaway
Grab My Button and Place it on Your Blog. – 2 Points
I need these to distribute to pregnant teens in our schools to help them learn about good child nutrition.
Hope we can win! ewilliamson6@cox.net
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these books look really cute. anything that makes veggies fun is a plus.
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entered your piggy toes press giveaway too!
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Hi! You are the second person to enter this closed contest today. Can I ask where you got the link in?