As difficult and confusing as the coronavirus pandemic may be for adults, it's likely more difficult for children to understand what's going on and why they cannot go to school or see their friends. That’s why graphic designer Nicole Rim wrote a free downloadable children’s picture e-book called “King Covid and the Kids Who Cared.”
Rim made the book to help the children at her church in Lynn better understand the global pandemic.
“I wanted to write and illustrate a book that could help them make sense of what was going on with the pandemic and also to empower them so that they can make a difference during this time,” Rim told Jim Bruade on WGBH New’s Greater Boston Monday.
The book imagines COVID-19 as tyrannical king, and teaches children the ways they can safely dethrone the king by doing things like social distancing and washing their hands. Rim got the idea for her unique look at COVID-19 while listening to an expert on the news describe the viruses as “using its crown to unlock the cells in our body.”
“That really was such a visual inspiration for me in my creative process of writing this book,” she said.
The book has two versions, a simplified one for kids ages 4-6, and a slightly more scientifically complex one for kids 7-9.
