Observe, Wonder, Make Connections: A Coronavirus Story

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  Cover

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  Ants Each Have Special Jobs

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  Growing Plants for the Neighborhood

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Inspiration

We met almost 20 years ago as environmental educators in the woods of Massachusetts. We bonded right away over a love of teaching, learning, and nature. We spent our free time identifying plants, thinking about what nature had to teach us and creating educational projects. After many years of living across the US from each other, we live near each other once again. We are both still educators and nature lovers and have honed our skills as a writer (Talia) and illustrator (Jessica). When we saw this competition, we were both eager to enter. We spent a 10 mile run brainstorming about what messages we would want to convey to the reader, how to make the story accessible to kids in the desired age range, and how we might put it all together. We were definitely inspired by our mutual love of learning, nature, and kids.

What it does

This book aims to explain coronavirus to children, aged 6-9, and their adults in a way that is engaging, heartwarming, educational, and helpful. We want the reader to be curious to learn more about a variety of things and to also have tools for how to take care of themselves and others during this time.

How I built it

After our initial brainstorm, Talia took off with a ton of great ideas. Our initial Zoom meeting happened with Jessica's mother and aunt, who were at the Zoom meeting for "craft night." Jessica's mom has coronavirus right now, but is asymptomatic and bored, so it was nice to have her with us. After that first meeting, Talia got to work on the writing and Jessica on the illustrating. We met periodically over Zoom to check in, brainstorm together, and vision. Finally, we felt ready to put it together. Jessica scanned the pictures and sent them to Talia and her very kind husband, Daegan. That's when challenges started!

Challenges I ran into

Talia and Daegan were tasked with laying out the book. This was not a super easy photoshop project and involved stretching pictures and all sorts of other design tweaks. They finally finished at midnight -- and they have 2 small kids! Talia and Daegan live in a rural area so their internet is very slow. This meant that saving and uploading the video took all night!

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I am so proud of how we were able to work together so smoothly. I loved the ideas that Talia shared and I felt like I was instantly engaged in the story and the characters. The meaning and learnings from the story were moving to me so it was a pleasure to illustrate. I loved taking the images from the story and making them come alive.

What I learned

I learned about different ways to teach kids about this hard time and how to help them feel like they can do something. I learned a lot about animals and nature, from ant roles to tree communication to woolly bears and Isabella tiger moths.

What's next for Observe, Wonder, Make Connections: A Coronavirus Story

As educators, we are both excited to share this with our students and teacher friends.

Built With

• english
• photoshop