Helping little ones face up to masks

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This article was published 09/09/2021 (1801 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It all started with a fussy baby and a face mask.

Back in February, Nia Schindle was out for a drive with her mom and her then 10-month-old daughter, Bowie, who was starting to get squirmy. Schindle didn’t have any toys in the car, so she offered her daughter a clean mask from the glove box to occupy her. After all, just about anything can become a toy in the hands of an inquisitive 10-month-old.

“She started putting it on her head like a hat and trying to put it on her foot like a shoe. And she was looking at it as if to say, What is this thing?“ Schindle says. “I turned to my mom and said, ‘this would be a cute idea for a children’s book.’”

And now, it is a children’s book. In June, Schindle, 32, released her debut, self-published board book, What Is This Thing? A Story About Face Masks. The story, geared towards children five and younger, follows a little girl as she tries to work out what her face mask is — and what it’s for. Written in simple, call-and-response style, What Is This Thing? helps small children understand why we wear masks, and opens the door for parents and caregivers to have conversations about these things that kids are seeing all the time.

“My daughter is a quote-unquote pandemic baby and many of my friends also became the moms during the pandemic,” Schindle says. “So I just thought this would be a really fun story and keepsake for a not-so-fun time.”

The book’s charming pictures are by Rafaela Harger, an illustrator based in Brazil. Finding the right person to bring Schindle’s vision into full colour was the most time-consuming part, she says. She scoured her own burgeoning collection of picture books as well as social media to get ideas, and came upon Harger’s work.

“I just loved her style,” Schindle says. “I found her Instagram and then she has quite the following on TikTok, so after diving into both platforms, and just falling in love with her style, I reached out to her and she was on board really fast, so we hit the ground running. We worked together so well.” (It helped, too, that Brazil is in the same time zone as Winnipeg.) The illustrations were completed in just under three months.

Response to the book has been really positive, Schindle says. She sold 135 copies in the first 24 hours. “Word of mouth really helped with that and just gave me that confidence boost, that I really did create something that resonated with people,” she says.

Years from now, Schindle imagines her teenage daughter coming across this pandemic-themed book in a box, and marvelling over the fact there were ever children’s books about masks. But in the immediate term, the larger take-home message of What Is This Thing? — that wearing a mask is how we take care of each other — remains relevant.

“(It’s a) gentle reminder to be kind, to look out for one another, and that we’ll get through this — and we’ll get through it faster if we do together,” she says. “Even instilling that message in the youngest kids, I think will help push us forward and hopefully out of this very soon.”

In Winnipeg, What Is This Thing? is available at Chapters St. Vital and Polo, McNally Robinson, Nest Family Store, Toad Hall Toys, Scout Coffee and Tea, as well as other locations to come.

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @JenZoratti