“All you need is a pen and paper and local art teacher Laurel Nakanishi will help you with the rest. Nakanishi has created interactive video lessons, “Writing with Auntie Laurel,” using her 11 years of experience to help children express themselves through poetry. Nakanishi has developed 11 videos, which deal with sensory details, figurative language, point of view, character development and epistolary (letter-writing) poems.” Maybe some adults can benefit too. “For the past 1,000 days, I’ve been writing at least one poem a day. I started on 17 August 2017 as a terrorist attack was unfolding in Barcelona. I was alone in a pub (standard for poets) and found myself writing a few lines on my phone. I posted it on Instagram, where I explained that I was experimenting with writing fast poems. That experiment is now wildly out of control. It may not be the healthiest pursuit. It requires daily engagement with the details of terrorist attacks, natural disasters, school shootings, celebrity deaths, sporting events and the slow plotlines of Brexit, Trump and climate change – and now there’s a pandemic to write about. Even so, there are days when it feels as if either the news or my mind has slowed to a standstill. It has helped that ‘Tuesday’ rhymes with ‘quiet news day’”. I could not write a poem a day for a week so kudos! “‘We’re Going to Be OK’ follows young Parker, an African American boy who’s getting ready for school one morning when his parents tell him that schools have been closed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. His parents share some ways in which they’ll stay safe as a family, including wearing masks, washing hands frequently and leaving street shoes at the door, and stay healthy, such as getting sufficient rest, eating wholesome foods and making time to exercise, play and go for walks together. To help children stay positive and upbeat while their familiar schedules are disrupted — and while they can expect to hear ‘no’ frequently when they ask about participating in some of their usual favorite activities — the book offers them a chance to feel empowered by creating an “I get to” list of things they can do. (One example: ‘Wear my Halloween costume all day.’)” Doctors write children’s book to help kids cope with pandemic.
