Best Coronavirus Children's Books 2020

Back to School?

Whether or not your school is held normally or remotely, no one knows how this pandemic will actually affect our kids. And, although we may not be able to change policy decisions, we can make sure that we pay attention to our kid’s mental health, their anxiety, and their worries no matter how things play out.

As someone who has worked in education for over twenty years, I know that teachers and parents have too much on their plate already. Who has time to research an entirely new market of books? Therefore, as someone with experience in publishing and education, I have created a list of the top children’s books currently on the market which discuss the pandemic in simple terms, are not scary, and help to ease children’s fears about going back to school.

How I Created This List

Since I published a book about the pandemic called The Day the Lines Changed back in March, I have been scanning the market for similar children's books about Covid-19. I have read, joined forums, connected with other writers, and checked Amazon bestseller lists. In addition, when I decided to create this list, I asked my colleagues in the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators, other forums, social media, friends, and family for their favorites and received over one hundred recommendations for children's books about the coronavirus.

As traditional publishers usually need months (to years!) to bring out new books, there are a lot of independent publishers who have stepped up to fill the need. Some of these children's books about the coronavirus are great, others less so. From a child spraying bleach (never a good idea) to another being chased by germs, many of them get so specific in their explanation of the virus, whether through text or elaborate illustrations that they actually come across as frightening. I find this unfortunate as I think children are already overwhelmed enough as things are. As most of these books have been published quickly (and some are from first time writers and teachers), I am not going to judge them too harshly for having a less than perfect layout or a text that could have used a bit more editing. Instead, I am judging these books on what matters most, how much kids will like, understand, and learn from them and how well teachers can use them in the classroom. 

Here are ten books to start your school year off right!

The Dino Hunt

A little while before lockdown began, my boys and I went to a dinosaur museum to sketch. As an illustrator I’m used to bringing my sketchbook along to places to draw, but this was the first time that I took my sons along to draw with me. My oldest son Jonas, who is ten, is already an avid paleontologist. His enthusiasm for the subject had rubbed off on his two younger brothers, age 6, and 9 who were also excited to learn more about these huge animals that once roamed the earth.

Time to Sketch

We headed off to the Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge, UK which in addition to having a few complete skeletons, is also so old that it is easy to imagine walking its aisles a hundred years ago looking for drawers full of bones. We walked around the museum for a few minutes until we found a fossil or skeleton that we wanted to sketch, pulled up some chairs and started drawing. It was a wonderful experience. My usually rambunctious boys were quiet and concentrated. They also wanted to learn how to sketch shadows and tips for proportions. There were no complaints and they all agree that we should sketch again another time. After a couple of hours we left with our heads full of dino ideas.

I was very impressed with my children's drawings. Of course, as their mother, I am a biased observer. Nevertheless, I loved how much attention they paid to the use of shadow and shape. The most realistic drawings, in my opinion, were from my ten year old son in the middle. In addition to their drawings, I also made a few funny ones to add to the mix. Who doesn't want to see a dino with a handbag?

Looking for Fossils

When we got home, the dinosaur fever didn’t stop. Out on the playground, the boys gathered rocks and began making dinosaur fossils. Then they asked me to search the playground for bones like a paleoentologist and to try to figure out what dinosaur I had found. Was it an Allosaurus? A Pterandon? A Triceratops? I loved looking at their dinosaurs. It was not hard to imagine the broken rocks as bones left behind.

Now, in the midst of partial lockdown, I am reminded of our dino hunt. The playgrounds just reopened and my boys are glad to be free again to use more space than just our mini-backyard. They are all still big fans of dinosaurs. 

I think its time to go hunting for fossils again...  

Keywords: Dinosaurs, paleoentologist, sketching

The Day the Lines Changed - Storytime

Social Distancing Scavenger Hunt

In our little neighborhood in Cambridge in the UK, my children have a nice group of friends that they enjoy playing with after school and on the weekends. As for many children in the world at the moment, social distancing has been very difficult for them. Other than saying hello from a window or on a computer screen, they have not been able to play with their friends in two weeks and probably won't be able to for three months.

In order to make this time a little easier and to give them an indirect way to connect with the neighbor kids, my neighbor Michelle and I decided to start the Social Distancing Scavenger Hunt.

1. Getting started
In order to get prepared, the kids and I first picked up some large rocks on our morning walk, took them home, and then painted them. One of my boys painted dinosaur fossils on his rocks, my youngest just painted them with different colors, and my middle child had some funny ideas. I also painted a couple, including the very simple sleeping rock which is covered in the letter z. Once the rocks were finished, we put a sealer on them.

2. Hiding rocks
Then, on our next walk, we chose 8 large rocks to hide along the way and as we hid them we thought about clues and wrote them down. For example, one rock has the word "rabbit" written in brown on it. This rock we hid under a large white round sculpture in the dog park. The clue was, "Find the brown rabbit under the white planet." Another rock we hid close to the playground and made finding it like in a pirate's story, "go four paces forward, then five to the right..." Sometimes we made references to landmarks or street signs. It was fun making the clues. The final rock was put by our doorstep and I told my friend to ring the doorbell and we could say hi from the window. Then it was her turn to place the rocks and think up clues.

3. Precautions
If you are worried about cross-contamination and catching Covid19 when picking up the rocks, you can use an inverted plastic bag to pick them up (as if you were picking up after your dog). If you coat the rocks with clear nail polish or a good coat of sealant, then you can also wash them with soap and water. Make sure you always wash your hands when you come back inside.

I think you'll find that the more often you do a scavenger hunt with the same people, the more difficult you can make the clues and hiding places. I hope that you enjoy this idea. Please let me know what other ideas you have! Stay safe!

By the way, if this is your first time on my blog. Please check out my previous post about a children's book that I wrote and illustrated to help ease children's fears during this time. It's called The Day the Lines Changed and all proceeds go to Covid19 charities. For more info, see my website kelleydonner.com.

The Day the Lines Changed

The past two weeks, my children have asked a lot of questions about what the Coronavirus is, how it travels, where it came from, whether their grandparents will be okay, and why they can’t go to school. Sometimes their questions are really complex and I realize just how much their little brains are trying to wrap their heads around what is going on. My husband and I are trying to limit the amount of negative Coronavirus talk that we do in front of them. They don’t need to know how many people died in Italy today or worry about whether the British health system will fall apart. However, they do want the big picture and a lot of the info about the Coronavirus is way to abstract for a small child to understand.

Last weekend, while all of these thoughts were circulating in my head, I had a moment of inspiration. An idea for a picture book popped into my head and wouldn’t leave me alone. As always when I get some crazy, creative idea, my brain became obsessed with it and the following day I spent every second I could get writing, tearing paper and scanning and then threw everything into Photoshop and InDesign. What became of this is a story called The Day the Lines Changed.

Carefree and happy, the green line lives together with her family, goes to school during the week, and on weekends visits the town square. Then one day some of the orange and purple lines begin to turn crooked and suddenly, everything is different for the green line and her family. Just as the green line begins to worry if her own family might turn crooked, one line makes a fantastic discovery which changes the lives of the lines forever.

Excerpt from book: first page

After sending around the story to some family and friends, and getting positive feedback, I decided I needed to share it with others. I realized that teachers, parents, and caregivers need resources right now to help them explain to children what a pandemic is, while still giving children a much needed positive view of the future. Therefore, I hope that this story will help to make those difficult conversations with children about the Coronavirus at the moment a little bit easier.

Excerpt: beginning of book

My family has been very lucky. My husband has a job that has not been affected much by the lockdown. Although I find trying to do a full time Masters while homeschooling my kids at the same kitchen table difficult, I understand that many others have far worse things to deal with at the moment. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for so many people affected by personal loss or dealing with financial insecurity. I would feel very uncomfortable making a profit from this book.  Therefore, I have decided to give 100% of the profits through the end of April to Covid-19 charities.

Excerpt: middle of book

I appreciate all of the support from those who read my blog. Could you please help me in getting the word out and post to your social media about The Day the Lines Changed. It is currently on most Amazon marketplaces (see links below)

Together, we can help to make this time a bit easier for children to process, ease their worries, and let them enjoy just being young.

Buy on Amazon.co.uk

Buy on Amazon.com
Go to website and read more 

Keywords: Coronavirus, children's book, Covid19, pandemic, children's book about Coronavirus, picture book about Coronavirus

Little Jack Thomson's Magnificent Brain Coloring Book

I received my proofs from Amazon today for Little Jack Thomson's Magnificent Brain along with Little Jack Thomson's Magnificent Brain Coloring Book. It is really exciting after so much hard work, to be able to finally hold these books in my hands.

Here is an example from Little Jack Thomson's Magnificent Brain Coloring Book. Since all of the illustrations in the book began as simple linocuts before they were transformed with watercolor and a bit of Photoshop, making a coloring book made a lot of sense. I am really thrilled with the results and I can't wait to test out this proof copy on my kids.

The best thing about making a coloring book? You get to ask the best questions to go with the pictures.

If you could design a planet, how would it look? or, What would your space train look like?

I hope that some children take the time to send me in their colored pictures as I can't wait to see some of the imaginative ideas that are out there.

Little Jack Thomson's Magnificent Brain and Little Jack Thomson's Magnificent Brain Coloring Book will be available on Amazon soon. I'll keep you informed!

More info at kelleydonner.com

Cambridge Printfair

This is just a brief note to let you know that I will be selling screenprints and linocuts next weekend at The Guildhall in Cambridge, UK.

 If you are interested in seeing some of my prints in advance, I have put a few of them online at https://www.kelleydonner.com/shop. I have made sure to make some that are as small as postcards, as I know that artwork is a wonderful thing to give at Christmas.

Thank you for your support!

Author Scams and Wishful Thinking

Writers are a great bunch of people, but we receive a lot of rejection. This is why, when an email pops into my inbox promising great things, I am often very skeptical.  In June, my book Ball! Ball! Ball! A Picture Book to Inspire Sensory Awareness made it onto Amazon's bestseller list in Special Needs Children's Health. Ever since then, however, I have started receiving emails all offering to make my book that one book in a million that makes it big.

Normally, when I receive an email which lists my name and book in the mail (unlike many, which just say Dear Author) I copy the website and research on Google whether or not the company can be trusted or not.  Last week, I had an email from a company saying that my website billing information had been compromised. It wasn't. The week before, I had an email just offering my financial support if I just responded to their email. I didn't. Unfortunately, a lot of these phishing emails just want you to confirm that your email account is real. It is annoying to have to double check everything, but definitely worth it.

A few days ago, I was offered a true author scam and I thought I might share it with you. This is how the email began:

Al Cole would like to officially invite you for a Radio Interview. He is one of the broadcasting's most gifted interviewers with his nationally syndicated show People of Distinction. One of the best Radio Host Personality of CBS Radio Station.

As I have done interviews and podcasts before, I thought it might be interesting to do more research into this one to see if there was any harm in doing it. Many shows work under the pretense of- you plug my site on your social media, and I'll interview you on mine. A win/win. Not all of them are scams.

My first impression of Al Cole's website was that he definitely had his connections and liked to appear big in a way that only Trump might understand. However, what struck me as odd, was that when I typed his "bestselling book" into Amazon, it showed it as being made in Createspace and it had a horribly cheesy cover. I find it hard to believe that someone with as many connections as Al Cole could not find a publisher. However, the more I Googled the guy, the less I found (also strange). So, just for fun, I called the number on the email (not with my cell phone number, of course) and talked to a very impressive sounding man from Philadelphia who promised me Al would give me three hours of his time and an interview that millions of listeners would receive. The interview itself would cost me nothing, but airing in would cost 1,700 dollars...

At that point I politely declined and decided I had heard enough. Just as vanity publishers always offer you the world if you only pay them first, you should never have to pay for an interview on online radio. On the one hand, I had to laugh at the vanity of it all. On the other hand, it makes me angry. I'm sure there are many good people who are scammed by people like Al Cole into thinking that they are a "Person of Distinction." Such scams, as always, prey into our insecurities and our wishful thinking.

Hopefully, the next person who googles author scam will get to read my blog first. If you are an author, just remember, if it sounds too good to be true. It is.

The Great Kid-friendly Bake-off!

I love baking with my kids. We also love watching those cheesy bake shows which make amateur contestants go against each other to see who can make the best (or worst) cake. This past week, my children and I decided to create our own show.

I got out enough bowls, wooden spoons, and equipment for each of my three children, gave them each 2 eggs, and ingredients. I had to film them each coming in to the kitchen, as they love to watch Youtube and wanted to have everything look and be commentated on as if were a real show.

Activity 1: Bake your own signature cake.

Three little hands mixing batter

Then they all got to work. I led them through the basics, but let them do the heavy lifting. They had to grease and flour their own pans, measure and stir their own ingredients, and design their own cakes. It was fun and we had a blast.

My youngest, who is five, took the whole thing really seriously. When asked what kind of a cake he would make, he replied, “A waterfall cake made of chocolate with a Spinosaurus on it.” Not an easy task, if you ask me.

Waterfall cake with Spinosaurus

They all worked really hard, and in the end I was really proud of each one of them. Jonas, who is now 9, made a dinosaur cake with fossils stuck in the frosting; Lukas, who is 8, made a chocolate happy face cake; and Max made his extravagant cake with a waterfall falling down a cliff made of rice cakes into a painted river of frosting.

Here are the final cakes and a recipe for only 1 round cake made with simple ingredients. I hope you enjoy yourselves as much as we did. This was a fantastic way for the whole family to get involved in the kitchen.

Recipe 1 Bake-off cake:

The final three cakes!

Ingredients:

1/2 C Butter
3/4 C Sugar
2 Eggs
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 C flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 C milk
1/4 C cocoa (optional)

Your choice of frosting and decorations!

How to make the cake:

1. Have children grease and flour a round baking tin.
2. First have children mix together the butter and sugar. Make sure your butter is nice and soft so that the kids can handle it.
3. Show how to break an egg and then let each add 2 eggs to their butter/sugar mixture and mix again.
4. Add vanilla, milk, and all dry ingredients. Mix well.
5. If you are going to make a chocolate cake, add a 1/4 C cocoa to the mix and perhaps a little bit more milk.
6. Bake at 350* F for 20-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Let cool and then decorate to your hearts content.
8. Don't forget to judge the best cake!

Please let me know how your cakes turned out!

On the Ball for Autism

I wanted to share with my blog readers an exciting article about my new book series which was published in the Cambridge News. It was exciting to receive such support from the community. Here is the entire article:

A new book series designed to empower children with special needs has become a hit with readers.

The Happy Heads series, by Trumpington based American children’s author and illustrator Kelley Donner, made its debut two weeks ago, and has already topped Amazon’s Special Needs Children’s Health bestseller list.

The first book in the series, Ball! Ball! Ball!, tells the story of a lively young boy with autism, who speaks only a few words and has a fascination for round objects and discovering new things. The second book in the series, Little Jack Thomson’s Magnificent Brain, is set to be published in the autumn, with the third and fourth books in the series currently being illustrated.

Speaking to the News, Kelley Donner explained why these books were necessary, and why stories focusing on characters with special needs should always strive to do more than just raise awareness.

She said: “I started work on these books ten years ago, but since moving to the UK, I’ve had more time to focus on creating the stories. It’s my belief that every child has the right to see themselves represented in the books they read, but the standard approach to characters with learning difficulties is very problematic, if they’re represented at all. “Most books are solely about raising awareness of autism, or children on the autistic spectrum, and are centred on a character who doesn’t have that condition learning about them. It creates the “Rain Man” effect, and in many cases furthers pre-existing stereotypes, when there are a broad range of behaviours on the spectrum.”

Kelley explained how the Happy Heads series would correct this. She continued: “I wanted to tell more complex children’s stories about children with autism, where they aren’t defined by their disability. There’s little representation like this in the picture book market - I asked various groups on Twitter if anybody had any examples, and people were struggling to name any. “I want the characters in these books to be less perfect, so children can see themselves. I’ve had a positive response from the autistic community, and I would love to start visiting schools to share this story and the ones I have coming up with children.

“My next book, Little Jack Thomson’s Magnificent Brain, will be out later this year. The aim with that book is to challenge stereotypes surrounding Asperger’s, as all representation highlights the intelligent children with Asperger’s, ignoring the more diverse spectrum of people with that condition.”

Kelley will be reading and selling copies of her book at The Big Weekend's Big Read tent on Parker's Piece at 3:20pm on Saturday, July 6.

Ball! Ball! Ball! A Picture Book to Inspire Sensory Awareness is now available to order on Amazon. More information on the Happy Heads series can be found by visiting kelleydonner.com.

Written by Alistair Ryder

The Big Read - Cambridge

Story-time at local libraries and events is a wonderful way to connect with children and to see how they relate to your material.

This past week I got to read some of my books, including ones that I haven't published, yet, at an event called The Big Read in Cambridge. It was part of a big festival called Cambridge Weekend and I found out about it from the Society of Children's Book Writer's and Illustrators.

Although the weather didn't cooperate the whole day, it was a great day. I met a lot of other local author and illustrators, had fun with the children, and met many parents. I also found out that I am going to have to find a way to publish my book, Draw Me Happy, because the children loved being able to draw the illustrations directly in the book.

I look forward to doing more reading events in the future!

Sensory Fun at Bangabandhu Primary School

This week I visited Maddi Outram’s special education class at Bangabandhu Primary School in London. 

Maddi has been using my book Ball! Ball! Ball! for topic this term in her class. As many of her students are autistic and have sensory processing issues, Ball! Ball! Ball!  offered various possibilities for tie-in activities and sensory fun. Her students are between the ages of 5 and 9.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with my book: 

Ball! Ball! Ball!  is about an autistic boy named Tom who is obsessed with all things round and enthusiastically points out any object he can find that looks like a ball. From peas to balloons, Tom learns that “balls” can be smooth, squishy, pop, and even have different temperatures.

Maddi read my story to her class and then made various tie-in activities based on sensory play. She collected variations on all of the objects in the book, such as a rock, a round lamp, bubbles, etc. and placed them in a basket to be used as needed. 

Just as Tom is excited about the peas on his plate, Maddi made a table full of peas and let the children play and squish them as they wished. For science and physical education, they rolled and threw different balls. She even filled a trampoline with balloons and let the children jump in them. I think she is doing a wonderful job and it is clear that the children all really enjoy being in her class. I'm thrilled that my book is being used in such a positive way.

On the day I visited, we decided to do a sensory bag activity. I placed a round object, such as a ball, round Lego tire, marble, roll of tape, etc. into a bag and let each of the children feel the object with their hands. Many of the children wanted to see the object and take it out of the bag.

After this, I read Ball! Ball! Ball!  to the class again. One of the pupils who had been stimming with his hand in front of his face the entire time, stopped stimming for a little while. This made me happy, as this was the child that Maddi had told me loved balls more than anything. Another child sat very close to me and wanted to touch the page that I was reading. Although I received very little eye contact, I could tell that most of the students were listening and taking part in their own way. Having written a story about an autistic child, it was wonderful getting positive feedback from children who could directly relate to Tom's character.

Finally, we made a fabric collage together of a scene from outer space using a simplified version of the collage technique that I used for Ball! Ball! Ball! I brought pieces of scrap material and stencils and we glued the material onto a piece of poster board. The children needed some help with using scissors, but they all worked really hard and together we finished a nice piece of artwork. 

I really enjoyed visiting Maddi’s class and the staff at Bangabandhu Primary School were all very friendly and helpful. I love being an advocate for children with special needs and autism and I look forward to visiting more schools in the future. I am also planning on adding a lot of Maddi’s sensory activities to my webpage along with some ideas for sensory play so that other teachers can benefit from her creativity and dedication.

Ball! Ball! Ball!  is in the process of being published and will be available on Amazon in June of this year. The ISBN number is 978-1-73-395951-3. Please contact me if you would like to pre-order a copy and if you enjoy my books, please leave me a positive review on Amazon. Thank you.

Oak Tree Mural

Goodbye drab grey stairwell!

Hello sunshine!

This past week I got the opportunity to do a huge mural of an oak tree in the stairwell at Oaks International School in Cambridge, UK. Lately, I have been spending most of my time either cutting out linocuts or sitting in front of Photoshop on the computer, so I loved being able to get out and get my hands dirty.

I decided to use a technique for the oak tree that I used on a previous mural using painters tape to mark off the lines.  I think this makes the image look as if it has actually been cut out, like the linocuts that I so love to make. I also used wallpaper to make leaves in order to give the tree a bit of texture. Here are the steps that I used in order to plan, create, and finish this gigantic tree:

1.   First, I needed to plan my design. I took a lot of photos of oak trees and branches and some pictures of the stairwell on my phone and then used a basic drawing program on my Ipad to draw a few ideas over the picture. This also gave me the possibility to show my idea to the school for approval before I got started.

2.   Then, I bought all of the necessary materials and got to work. I used string and a bit of tape to layout my tree design onto the wall. This way, I had the possibility to lift a branch higher or lower with ease. As this stairway turns twice on its way up, it was important to see how the actual tree would look on the actual wall instead of just on my Ipad.

3.   Once I was happy with the design I began taping the branches and accents. I used the most expensive blue painters tape for fine edges because it makes a huge difference in comparison to cheap masking tape. Even with the best tape, there will always be some places where the paint comes off the wall, but there is nothing worse than having most of the paint come off with the tape. Blue painters tape is also easy to use.

4.   With my tree all taped, I began the first round of painting. Before I put a paintbrush on the wall, I went around with my finger on all of the edges and made sure that they were down. This is very important, because otherwise paint will leak through the little bubbles on the side and look tacky. If you are really concerned about leakage, you can always paint the sides of the image with the background color once before you add your top coat. Any leakage will then be in your background color. Nevertheless, if you are good about making sure your edges are taped well, this is not necessary. Because my brown was not very opaque, I actually had to paint the tree twice. 

5.   After painting the tree, I added some accents for fun. I put an owl in the tree, a birdhouse on a branch, and some birds in the air. I actually had to stop myself from not adding more, as I realized my project would quickly get out of hand and never finished.

6.   Finally, it was time for the leaves. I bought some inexpensive paintable textured wallpaper and rolled out a few sheets onto the floor. I then painted these green. Once it had dried, I made my own stencils and cut out oak leaves in various shapes and sizes. I used basic wallpaper paste to then glue them onto the wall.

Eventually, the school would like to add words at different places throughout the tree with the core vales of the school, such as happiness, aspiration, and community.

The best part of the entire project was listening to the children as they passed by in the halls. They loved seeing the process and they were so encouraging. Seeing so many children happy with the result made it definitely worth the effort. I was very pleased with the result, because it looks, like I had hoped, as if it was printed on the wall. I look forward to doing another mural like this in the future.

The Oaks International School tree mural is also listed under current projects on my website: kelleydonner.com.

Going to Art School

I'm very excited to announce that I was accepted to the Cambridge School of Art at Anglia Ruskin and will be doing my MA in Illustration and Book Arts this fall.

Although I loved my liberal arts education, I have always dreamed of going to art school and I am really looking forward to getting started. I have already met some of the professors and other students and they were all very wonderful and helpful. Then again, here in England, I have rarely met anyone who is not polite and friendly.

I will be experimenting with illustration as well as increasing my knowledge of book design and dabbing a little in animation. I'm looking forward to what new things I will learn and how my art will develop. I'll keep you informed.