Inspiration
We are friends and fellow doctors in training at Harvard Medical School who have many friends, family and little ones in our lives that have been deeply affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. Katherine, the author, has always loved to teach and be part of the experience as her students grow more confident in themselves through learning new things. She enjoys writing rhyming mnemonics along the way to make difficult concepts feel more approachable. She runs a free website with medical songs to help students around the world prepare for their exams more easily. Constance, the illustrator, has always loved to draw and works as a graphic designer to make infographics about scientific papers. She also runs an Etsy shop where she donates the proceeds to medical charities. The Ramona and Iris project grew out of these interests.
What it does
This is a rhyming book about the Coronavirus designed to teach children the basics of staying safe during the pandemic. It also has themes around the normalcy of feeling scared and the positive effect that seeking help and taking action can have.
How we built it
We used google-docs as our primary repository for shared project development. For the graphics we used Adobe Photoshop.
Challenges we ran into
Keeping the rhyming scheme and vocabulary simple enough for the target audience (ages 6-9) was a challenge that family and friends helped with greatly by reading with their children and sharing with us any awkward moments or confusing concepts. Similarly with the art we wanted to create a color palate that would appeal to children and could convey a slowly growing sense of hope and security for the 'scared' character Ramona.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Overall, we are both so pleased to have had the opportunity to make a book like this. We have loved seeing our loved ones reactions and look forward to sharing this with more kids to help them know they have the power within themselves to take actions that will make a difference in their own safety and the world's healing.
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