Another pair of creative partners are songwriters and music teachers Roxanne Kiely and Stephen Kiely, the brains behind Busy Izzy and Friends, an ever-expanding multimedia empire of lively books, catchy songs, interactive videos and even a vibrant stage show for extra colour and movement.
They recently partnered with Prosper (Project Australia) to support the health and well-being of Australian children through performances, nutrition and cooking showcases, literacy and learning activities and other special events.
Aimed at children from three to eight years, Busy Izzy and Friends is all about promoting friendship and fun and healthy food. Central to the website is Izzy's virtual veggie garden where she builds compost and grows organic vegetables and herbs to make "snaxalicious snacks" for her Nix & Nax store.
Australia's premier organic gardening magazine, Good Organic Gardening, featured Busy Izzy and Friends in a recent edition of the magazine. All the kids at Nix & Nax thought that was cool!
While web designer and music producer Stephen is more of a suburban boy with a background in rock music, Roxanne - who as a vocal coach helped launch the career of Delta Goodrem and worked with X-Factor winner, Marlisa, among many others, grew up on a dairy farm in New Zealand.
"I would often write songs and poetry while milking cows, she recalls. "I was scared of the big cows and writing songs would take my mind off how big they were. But I loved them just the same and they were my favourite pets.
She and her parents and siblings all pitched in with planting, digging and harvesting: "We grew all of our own food - corn, tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, lettuce, broccoli, carrots - and we had a massive orchard with guava trees, feijoa trees, plums, apples, peaches and tree tomatoes (now called "tamarillo"), and grapevines, too."
They also kept free-range chickens and Roxanne remembers how hard the family worked on building and maintaining their compost bins. Her mother made all their clothes, "from underwear to coats", she says, and both parents "worked all day long and, of course, we all followed their lead. We had to."
Roxanne acquired not only a work ethic but a lifetime of memories to sustain Busy Izzy and her garden plot and healthy food store: "Izzy has a compost bin and a puppy, just like I had. It reminds me of my wonderful, natural and healthy life on the farm."
Busy Izzy and Friends are much more than wonderfully entertaining children's picture books filled with exciting adventures. These books for children have ethical and moral stories too. There are songs, interactive videos, fun songs and videos about being a good friend, healthy food, vegetables and fruit songs about fruit salad. Friendship songs, fun songs, songs about being sensible too, and one of Izzy's friends is a secret-agent, her name is Skye and we have a song for her too. Oh, and an all new stage show for kids...
Modern Mo Li, is musical who loves to play the blues and Izzy's friends, Mathematic Max, Sensible Steven, Even Evan, Worried Warren, Talkative Tess and Bobby, who can be a little bit bossy, are wonderful and generous kids who love to spend time with their friends...and of course there is Izzy's, adopted little stray from the SPCA, Newly Truly "Who's the lucky rescue pup at Nix & Nax, who's everybody's favourite little friend." These children's Picture Books, song and videos have something and everything for everyone.
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For more information - and entertainment:
www.youtube.com/c/busyizzyandfriends
www.instagram.com/busyizzyandfriends
www.facebook.com/BusyIzzyandFriends
