{"id":23759,"date":"2021-03-26T16:35:38","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T23:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000019309"},"modified":"2021-03-26T16:48:53","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T23:48:53","slug":"marsha-bullocks-new-book-about-coronavirus-lets-kids-get-serious-without-getting-scared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/marsha-bullocks-new-book-about-coronavirus-lets-kids-get-serious-without-getting-scared","title":{"rendered":"Marsha Bullock’s new book about coronavirus lets kids get serious without getting scared"},"content":{"rendered":"

When writing her latest children\u2019s book, it was important to Marsha Bullock that children not be afraid of its main character, the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

Being the author of a dozen children\u2019s and adult-themed books, as well as a longtime pre-K teacher in the Long Beach Unified School District, Bullock has had plenty of time to ruminate on human behavior and she knew very little good comes when people act out of a sense of fear or helplessness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted the book to carry the weight of the moment without scaring the kids,\u201d Bullock said.<\/p>\n

And so, \u201cCorona and the Glitter\u201d presents the virus as that, a virus, not an all-powerful monster. Corona comes with knowable aspects and behaviors that allow the children in the story to act in ways that allow them to self-protect.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe virus is being a virus [in the story] and the children learn that there are things they can do, like socially distance and wash their hands, to take care of themselves,\u201d said Bullock.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Her book will be included in a Take Care Kit provided by the Agape Children\u2019s Museum as part of a March 27 event<\/a> at Barton Elementary School to promote health and wellness in the Black community.<\/p>\n

The importance of doing everything possible to avoid COVID was driven home to Bullock when, just a few weeks after the publication of \u201cCorona,\u201d she was diagnosed with the virus. It was a plot twist worthy of one of her adult works, though the reviews from Bullock were less than enthusiastic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was horrible,\u201d she said. \u201cThe worst. The worst I could ever imagine. I lost my sense of taste and smell, I was sluggish. It was awful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bullock says she has no idea where she contracted the virus, but, as a pre-K teacher, the fact is she is around kids each day, every day. The virus knocked her out of the classroom for six weeks.<\/p>\n

Now that she\u2019s back she says the experience has convinced her even more how important it is to give kids the tools to avoid getting sick. Fortunately, she says, children are adaptable creatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey came to school one day and saw the world shutting down, that could be terrifying but kids are like sponges when it comes to change,\u201d Bullock said. \u201cYou give them new information, a new way of doing things and they just soak it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was that knowledge that was one of the factors driving Bullock to write \u201cCorona.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to figure out what I wanted the children to take from this,\u201d she said. \u201cThese days, there\u2019s so much going on, things have been so weird, I wanted to make sure to get across exactly what I wanted them to learn. I pretty much went into teacher mode.\u201d<\/p>\n

To get a copy of \u201cCorona and the Glitter\u201d along with personal protective equipment, including disposable facemasks, hand sanitizer, infrared thermometers and sanitizing wipes, they will be handed out from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., March 27 at Barton Elementary, located at 1100 E. Del Amo Blvd.<\/p>\n

The event is sponsored by the April Parker Foundation, in partnership with the City of Long Beach Blck Health Equity Fund, Coalition for Involved African\u00a0 American Families, Project Optimism and Agape Children\u2019s Museum.<\/p>\n

For more information, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The importance of doing everything possible to avoid COVID was driven home to Bullock when, just a few weeks after the publication of \u201cCorona,\u201d she was diagnosed with the virus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":241,"featured_media":71513,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27522,17831],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[2890],"class_list":["post-23759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","tag-childrens-books","tag-coronavirus","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/241"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23759"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=23759"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=23759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}