Protecting the Crown：A book about coronavirus for children

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  A secret mission sent from another planet.

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  I am flying to Earth to protect the crown!

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  Victory is at hand!

Inspiration

Our inspiration comes from the name of “coronavirus”. Since “corona” means “crown” in English, our story is about taking back the crown from the “coronavirus”. So, fighting against COVID-19 turns into a battle of protecting the crown, which we think makes the story more interesting and appealing for children.

What it does

This book is written for kids to explain to them what is coronavirus, what they need to do to protect themselves, and how to maintain good mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to present these scientific facts and advice to kids in an interesting and engaging way.

How I built it

To create this storybook, we mainly used the book creator app to put everything together. Since the story is about a battle with coronavirus, we used some elements of game design. For example, we created profiles of characters and the setting of the universe using pixel art. We also use MediBang Paint to create all the other images as we think the effect will be better than that of pixel art.

Challenges I ran into

One challenge we ran into is to include the elements of game design in the storybook. Since no one in our team has learned game design, it took us some time to figure out how to create these profiles of characters and what information related to COVID-19 we should put in it. Explaining scientific facts in an interesting way is not that easy and is very different from simply writing an essay. Another challenge that we had is that we didn't really have much time creating the book because when we found about this competition, there was only one week left before the deadline. Therefore, we worked very hard in these days to finish this project. Everyone tried their best to create, improve, and polish it.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Since it is our first time to create a storybook for kids and we are pressed for time, we think we've done a good job overall. We succeeded in coming up with a creative idea very quickly and turning it into a story. Also, we learned to use various online resources and software applications to help us create the project. For example, we utilize Photoshop, MediBang Paint, Book Creator, etc.

What I learned

This is our first time creating a children's book and we've learned a lot from this experience. For example, we learned how to tell the story in a way that kids could understand and have some fun when reading it. We also developed our problem-solving skills, as mentioned above. Most importantly, we learned how to cooperate and communicate with others when creating a project together. Communication is the key since the lack of communication could lead to misunderstandings and inefficiency.

What's next for Protecting the Crown：A book about coronavirus for children

As students in China who have been through the period of a severe pandemic, we fully understand the feeling of anxiety that people would have when staying at home. Thus, by making this book for children, we hope to convey the knowledge of the coronavirus and guide them to be more positive. When children read this story, we hope that they can be as brave as that crown protector.