Cough Goes the Weasel

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  Front Cover of Children's Book

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Inspiration

This story was inspired by the childhood game, "Pop Goes the Weasel." My love for animals and nature inspired me to make my main character an animal. The story also is about the love of a brother and a sister, which was inspired by my brother who I am staying with during the quarantine.

What it does

This project is special for a number of reasons. First, the main character, Willy, comes down with a mild case of COVID-19. I thought this was important to show, because so often we only hear of death in the media. However, it was important for me to show that COVID-19 is not a death sentence and that people do recover. The story also features many important people and organizations, such as the World Health Organization (renamed Weasel Health Organization, the CDC, and Dr. Fauci. The characters also travel the world to teach others how to stay healthy. I wanted to help children become more familiar with names and terms they may be hearing frequently but in a fun way.

How I built it

I drew all of the illustrations by hand and colored them with colored pencil. I then scanned them and uploaded them to Microsoft Word where I added the text.

Challenges I ran into

This was my first children's book, so I was unsure of logistics, such as the length, what to include, and how to make the story informational yet fun. After some Google searching, I got a better idea of what to do and the problem was solved! It was also challenging trying to keep up with my schoolwork (Emory undergraduates are in finals now) while also working on this, but I was able to manage my time well overall.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I am so proud of making my first children's book! I normally only draw for fun and this was the first time I drew this much for one project. I always thought making a children's book would be fun but never tried. This book showed me how I can combine my interests in public health and medicine (I want to be a pediatrician with an MPH) with my gift of drawing.

What I learned

I learned more about COVID-19 while doing this project. Trying to explain the terms in a simple way actually showed me that there were things that I was unclear on...I had to really answer the "why" question for myself before I could write about it for a child.

What's next for Cough Goes the Weasel

I want to read my book to my friends and family, especially the young children in my family. I am also going to get a binder so that I can keep all of my hand drawings.

Built With

• microsoft
• word