Children’s book promotes positivity and caution while paying it forward
When the pandemic first hit in March of this year, Claudia Amato and her family consumed a lot of news related to the novel coronavirus. And they weren’t alone. Reports suggest that media consumption has broken historical records in North America. “The fact that we were watching everything in the beginning, the kids were getting bombarded by very scary statistics in the news. They were asking me constantly, ‘Mom – what are the numbers today?’ And I would tell them, and they’d say ‘Oh – that’s bad, that’s bad!'” Claudia said.
To quell their fears, Claudia decided to write a story about a big virus and the many little warriors who must face it. “The first idea behind the book was to teach the children about being safe and washing their hands and so on,” she added. “The second was to give them hope.”
Then one night, her husband noticed what she had been writing and told Claudia he believed other children would benefit from it. “The story helped counteract all the messages we were seeing because it was very much focused on the present and not looking too far ahead into the future – that things will be better again.”
Fast forward just a couple of months, and almost 700 copies of the book Stay Safe Little One have been sold. Alongside friend and illustrator Jennifer Nozzolillo, Claudia decided to donate all of the profits to the JGH Foundation’s COVID-19 Relief Fund. Close to $1,800 has been donated so far, and Claudia couldn’t be prouder.
“The community was just so supportive. Without it, none of this would have been possible,” she shared enthusiastically. “We hope this action will encourage others to donate and to actively be a part of fighting the virus in the real world at the JGH.”
The JGH was the first hospital in Montreal to treat adult patients with the coronavirus. Their efforts fueled necessary research, like Dr. Brent Richardson’s biobank, which made predicting optimal treatment for COVID-positive patients possible and telehealth programs like ESOGER1, an online tool that evaluates the socio-geriatric situation of a specific elderly individual.
“I think we have to be a little more patient than we want to be, but be that as it may, we are here now, and hopefully, an end is in sight.”
December 2020, last updated January 2021
“The first idea behind the book was to teach the children about being safe and washing their hands and so on. The second was to give them hope.”
