Staying Home

A book to help kids understand COVID-19, affirm their feelings, and give them power to keep safe. Suggests ways to spark ideas for things kids can do while staying home during the pandemic.

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Inspiration

We're a grandmother/granddaughter team. We're staying isolated together during the pandemic. When we saw the COVID-19 competition, we thought it would be a great project to share. We chose to approach it from the perspective of a child talking to a grandmother and asking questions about COVID-19.

What it does

We hope the book will present information in a clear way, while also recognizing how kids are feeling and giving them some ideas for how they can take control of staying home. It encourages kids to ask questions, acknowledges their feelings, and gives them ideas on things they can do.

How we built it

First, we wrote the text (which changed many times) and then we worked on different illustrations. It was great to use Adobe Illustrator so we could both share ideas and do drawings. Once we decided on the basic look for the characters, we were able to make the illustrations for whatever we wanted. Isabella even created a font based on her handwriting that we used for the list at the end of the book. The Staying Home title is also hand-drawn in Illustrator.

Challenges we ran into

We wanted to keep the book applicable to kids from all different backgrounds. We tried to pick skin colors that weren't representative of any specific ethnicity, so we mostly stuck with bright colors. Sometimes we had trouble making enough variety in blues and greens that still looked appealing. We struggled to find language that explained COVID-19 clearly without being alarming or technical. We wanted to keep the number of words appropriate for a kids' book, but there were times when it was hard to explain certain ideas succinctly.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Getting the book done was a big accomplishment. It really was collaborative from the illustrations to the writing. We both had clear ideas on what we wanted to do, so we had to bring those ideas together until we agreed. It was fun to create continuity among the illustrations, so they were consistent. When one showed the main character looking out a window, we made the view from the window include what would be in sight. We hid small images throughout the book (like squirrels and dogs), so kids who notice them can look for more.

What we learned

We both learned more about Illustrator and Indesign, and we learned that there's a lot more to learn.

What's next for Staying Home

Isabella and Linda hope it will win the competition so that kids can get properly educated about COVID-19 in a fun way. During this stressful time, we hope the book can also be something to look forward to for kids. In the future we would like to write and illustrate more children's books as well as submit to more competitions by Emory.

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