Health-care worker from St. Catharines writes children’s book to help explain COVID-19 lockdown

During the first lockdown in March 2020, then 27-year-old Kelsey Peters was staying with her parents and siblings at their St. Catharines home.

Unable to return to her work as a physiotherapist in England, Peters began to consider how difficult the lockdown must be for children who needed to remain away from friends, school and even playgrounds.

Peters decided to try writing a children’s book to help. Her family encouraged her to take it a step further and do animations, too.

“From March 29, which was a Sunday when the book was written … then the illustrations happened through that week and I published the book myself through Amazon by the following Sunday,” said Peters.

The short book, called Where Did the World Go?, is written as a poem that centres around a little girl named Rosie who is trying to wrap her head around the pandemic.

“Hopefully, they’ll (children) understand that in staying home, they’re doing their part as a member of a global community to help stop the spread of this virus,” said Peters.

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It’s a message Peters hopes resonates with children and their families during the current lockdown, too.

As a health-care worker at an elective surgery hospital in England, Peters must wear full PPE all day due to COVID-19 and most follow-up appointments, which used to be hands-on, now need to be managed over the phone.

“It’s certainly turning our profession upside-down at the moment and we’re having to get quite creative with how we treat patients,” said Peters.

Peters told Global News 100 per cent of the money earned from sales of the book has been donated to Food 4 Kids Ontario and Food Banks Canada.