This book is dedicated to all children who want to learn about COVID-19.

"Remember to always stay kind, stay positive, and stay home if you are sick."

- Abi, Meghan, Julia, Konstantinos & Surangah (2020)

"Grandpa, I can't believe I got sick just because I forgot to wash my hands one time! I'm tired of staying home and I miss my friends! I'm sooo bored!" Sam exclaims.

"Cheer up, Sam! It's not so bad. We can play another board game." Grandpa says.

"No more board games, Grandpa! There's nothing to do at home!" says Sam.

"Nothing to do?! Back in my day, we had to stay home for months because of COVID-19." Grandpa says.

Sam asks, "What's COVID-19?".

Well, it's a long story... Back in the year 2020, COVID-19 came along and made the whole wide world panic!

THE CORONAVIRUS FAMILY

SARS

MERS

COVID-19 virus

COVID-19 is a sickness caused by a virus that comes from the coronavirus family. The coronavirus family has many virus family members.

What's a virus?

Well kiddo, a virus is like a very, very, very tiny germ. It looks like a bug because it has lots of antennas.

If it enters our body, it can make us very sick.

"Oh no! Grandpa, I'm sick! Does that mean I have COVID-19?" Sam asks worriedly.

"Haha, no silly! You have the flu. They are different viruses from different families." Grandpa responds.

"Oh. How did COVID-19 start?" Sam wonders.

Then it spread to Russia, France, Italy, and then across the whole world. It even came all the way to Canada! Lots of people got sick and soon enough, it turned into a pandemic.

It's believed that the first person to ever get COVID-19 was a man in China.

Please stay home!

A pandemic is what you call a disease that spreads all across the world and creates a great, big, giant emergency!

"Woah that sounds scary! Grandpa, what happens when you get the virus?" Sam asks.

Once you get the virus, it enters your body and tries to attack it. Think of the virus as a bad guy. The virus is trying to hurt your body parts like your lungs.

When the bad virus gets to your lungs, the antennas all over the virus lets it stick onto the good parts of your lungs and makes them bad too.

This hurts your body because your good parts are turning into bad parts. When the good parts turn bad, they can’t protect your body anymore.

What does it feel like when you get sick?

Grandpa says, "Remember yesterday when your throat hurt and you felt hot when you got sick? With COVID-19, your throat hurts too and you feel cold and hot sometimes.

I need air!

It’s also hard to breathe. It feels like how you feel when you are swimming underwater for too long.

Hi Dr. Bowdish!

Hello!

I also remember my friend, Dr. Dawn Bowdish, said that you get a really bad fever.

"Do you remember how I said that the virus turns the good parts of your body into bad parts?" Grandpa asks.

"Well when parts of your body turn bad, they can no longer do their job anymore." says Grandpa.

Dr. Bowdish said that sometimes your whole body heats up, just like how you feel when you stand in the sun for too long.

Some people are worth melting for!

I feel hot too, Sam!

It's so hot outside, Josh. I'm tired!

Soon, you feel tired, just like after you and your friends play soccer in the sun for too long.

Sam gets up and says, "Wait Grandpa, did everyone who got sick feel really bad?".

Grandpa thinks for a second and says, "Not always".

I got a bad mark! I'm so sad.

I did not do well either. It's ok, better luck next time!

Think about when you and your brother got a bad grade in school.

Your brother was not really sad but you were really, really sad.

Well, when people get the virus, some people are not really sick but others are really, really sick.

I feel fine!

My head hurts!

Sam thought aloud, "Ohhh, I get it now. Well how did people catch COVID-19 from other people?"

Usually people would catch COVID-19 from other people’s coughs and sneezes or touching places that they have touched.

With chickenpox even if you aren't in the same room as the person with chicken pox you can get it from them just by breathing their same air!

Chickenpox

COVID-19

The germs in COVID-19 are a lot heavier than the ones in chickenpox and can’t get blown around by the wind as easily.

2 meters

Also, some people had the virus and did not know they had the virus because they did not feel sick or they were not feeling sick yet. So people traveled around the world, not knowing they were sick. That is how the virus spread everywhere.

What did everyone do to try and stop the virus from hurting people, Grandpa?

Grandpa responds, "Many people wore masks and were told to social distance so the virus would not spread so much.

Social distance means that you have to stand at least 6 feet apart from someone. So the distance between you and me should be almost two times taller than you, since you are only 1 meter tall, which is about 3 feet."

They also told people to stay home from school. Just like when you are sick, they tell you to stay home until you feel better because they don't want you getting other people sick.

It was hard to know who had COVID-19, so if everyone stayed home or social distanced, then people would not get sick as much.

SOCIAL DISTANCE

6 FEET

That's not fair that the bad virus hurt people!

"A lot of people felt the same way. That's why they did research on the virus. You know, even I did research on the coronavirus," Grandpa says.

Sam asks, "Really Grandpa! What did you do?"

Grandpa smiled, "I was studying contact tracing. I was like a detective!"