“Smiling from Ear to Ear” is not your typical children’s book.
Written by University of Southern California senior Kaitlyn Chu, the playful book aims to help little ones understand the more serious discussion of wearing masks.
“I just remember going to the grocery store and seeing everyone wearing face masks for the first time,” Chu said. “I was thinking, how are kids feeling when they’re seeing all these faces that are hidden?”
Chu wrote the book over eight weeks at her home in Orange County after she was inspired by a story her younger sister, Kara, shared.
“One of my high school teachers told us that when they were introducing masks to her young son, he actually starting having nightmares that the ‘mask monster’ was chasing him,” Kara said.
Chu published the book herself and has already sold 800 copies on Amazon to people around the world.
She said she is not phased by the debate that continues to rage over wearing masks in public.
“We’ve been hearing that face masks is a way to decrease the spread, so if that’s something that we can all be a part of then I would encourage everyone to have some compassion and think about all of the people who have already been affected,” she said.
Chu said she is donating 100% of the proceeds to No Kid Hungry and the Black Women in Visual Art organization.
Download the free News 8 App – for iOS, click here and for Android, click here.