As a graphic designer, Nicole Rim always had the dream of writing a book in the back of her mind, but the outbreak of COVID-19 suddenly gave her the perfect material she never knew she was looking for.
On the way home from work in early March, this 40-year-old who lives in Lynn, Massachusetts, was listening to a story about the novel coronavirus. A health official was describing the COVID-19 molecule as having little crowns on it that unlocks cells in our bodies. When she got home that day, Rim started drawing and couldn’t stop.
“I just wanted to produce something as fast as possible,” Rim said.
Her idea was simple: create a children’s book that parents could read to their kids about coronavirus.
Drawing from that interview she heard on the radio, Rim decided the book’s main character would be an evil dictator named King Covid. As the book explains, King Covid wears many crowns and sends out his army to attack people.
The book is titled King Covid and the Kids Who Cared.
Rim wanted her book to not only explain how COVID-19 works, she also wanted it to empower kids to fight back. In the book, kids can be seen using their ‘superpower’ of hand washing to defeat King Covid and his army. The book also explains how fighting back against King Covid’s army can help others the community who might get the virus.
“I really wanted to empower kids, encourage kids to care for themselves and others as we wait out this pandemic. My hope is this book will teach them the importance of caring for others, putting others first,” she said.
King Covid and the Kids Who Cared is one of the first of its kind tailored toward kids about the coronavirus. In hopes of relieving some of the pressure parents are feeling when it comes to talking to their children about COVID-19, Rim has made the entire book free and available for download. So far, it’s been downloaded more than 50,000 and is published in four different languages.
You can download it
here
.