The Busy Bears

Hibernation is a metaphor for being in quarantine in this Dr. Seuss-like rhyming children's book to make the scary Covid-19 times more accessible for young kids.

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I am a middle school teacher and mother of a 3-year-old and a 3-month-old. I have no time whatsoever during this quarantine. I'm caring for both my small children as well as teaching full time. One night in March, during a 4 AM feeding, I just starting writing this story on my phone. I wanted to come up with a way to explain to my toddler why she couldn't go to school or see her friends and teachers. I shared this with a few people who suggested I look into publishing. My aunt volunteered to illustrate this for me. She is so talented and painted with watercolor. We enjoyed collaborating together from afar.

This book can be used by parents and teachers to explain to young kids why they can't leave their house very much. I use hibernation as a metaphor for quarantine. In the end, the busy bears learn that when they are forced to slow down form running around, that they learn to value spending quality time together.

I wrote this book on my iPhone X.

I've never written a book before, and I have no idea about how to really get this out there.

I am proud that my daughter, her class, my cousin, and a few others have been able to use this story to try and wrap their heads around all this.

I learned that writing to try to help my daughter come to terms with this crisis has really helped me come to terms more with this crisis.

A dream I have would be to get this book out to the greater community so other parents and teachers could help their kids better understand the quarantine situation.

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