Chandra A. Clements's Blog
October 15, 2020
Rona Stole My Fun! made it to the Best New Children's eBooks
I'm happy to announce that my book, "Rona Stole My Fun!: The Four Year Old Vs the Virus", made it to BookAuthority's Best New Children's eBooks:
https://bookauthority.org/books/new-c...
BookAuthority collects and ranks the best books in the world, and it is a great honor to get this kind of recognition. Thank you for all your support!
The book is available for purchase on Amazon.
https://bookauthority.org/books/new-c...
BookAuthority collects and ranks the best books in the world, and it is a great honor to get this kind of recognition. Thank you for all your support!
The book is available for purchase on Amazon.
Rona Stole My Fun! made it to the Best Coronavirus eBooks of All Time!
I'm happy to announce that my book, "Rona Stole My Fun!: The Four Year Old Vs the Virus", made it to BookAuthority's Best Coronavirus eBooks of All Time:
https://bookauthority.org/books/best-...
BookAuthority collects and ranks the best books in the world, and it is a great honor to get this kind of recognition. Thank you for all your support!
The book is available for purchase on Amazon.
https://bookauthority.org/books/best-...
BookAuthority collects and ranks the best books in the world, and it is a great honor to get this kind of recognition. Thank you for all your support!
The book is available for purchase on Amazon.
September 10, 2020
Covid Busting Art for Children
Rona Stole My Fun!: The Four Year Old vs the Virus
Hello 2020! Hello normality. Hello social events. Hello birthday parties and functions with friends and family. Hello coronavirus........ oh hang on. Now everything has changed.
Goodbye normality. Goodbye freedoms. Goodbye kindergarten. Goodbye birthday events. Goodbye visiting relatives and loved ones. Goodbye baby showers. There is a new normal in town. And it has no respect for how little people feel about it.
The impact of the Covid 19 pandemic on little people could be considered outside our realm of understanding. How would you feel about people wearing masks, all of a sudden, everywhere you go, and you are four years old? How would you feel when mummy or daddy tell you that you can't go to school or kindergarten anymore as there is a virus about town, yet everything is going to be OK and not to worry? How would you feel being seven, and you accidentally catch a glimpse of a death toll number on television or hear about people dying in nursing homes from this largely unknown or understood offender? How would you process being nine even, and you can no longer hug your grandmother?
Indeed, these are unique and challenging times, and no parent or caregiver was provided with an instruction book on how to manage this for ourselves, let alone for our young ones! Yet here we find ourselves, with young ones in tow, watching our every move and wondering how we are coping and how they should cope too. And it is in this process that I have discovered the therapy and support of art. During a nighttime story, invented in the spur of the moment, I began to tell my then two and four-year-old a fable about how a naughty virus, named Rona, tried to steal their fun and cause chaos in the community, but ultimately failed in 'her' endeavors. The kids listened intently and I knew at this point in time I was totally nailing a motherhood moment. This is not to negate the four thousand and eighty-three moments that have not gone as well beforehand, yet at this point in time, I was invincible and just smashing my motherhood goals for six!
The next day, my four-year-old put pencil, paint, chalk, anything she could find to paper, and off she went creating art to match my little bedtime story. This continued at her kindergarten where she added additional paintings to the mix and before long (in fact in four days!) we had all the illustrations we needed to publish a book. Mummy, not-an-author-or-self-publisher, surged ahead learning everything she needed to know about writing and publishing as fast as she could. By the end of that week, the book was locked and loaded, combining mummy's bedtime story with her daughter's artwork into a twenty-eight-page paperback called Rona Stole My Fun: The Four-Year-Old Vs the Virus. Tara, my four-year-old is the sole illustrator: a fact of which I am rather, kind-of, extremely, totally proud.
What is important here, and what has gone on to become an increasingly important approach to helping my children cope with real-world issues, is the art. Through her drawings and paintings (some involving blow art whereby we used straws to blow paint across the page and subsequently all across mummy's white granite kitchen), Tara learned to process what was happening around her with Covid 19 and became much more comfortable that she could not only understand it but also explain it to her sister, and kindergarten-aged friends. You see, Rona is scary without understanding. Yet, with a furry face and facing time in the naughty corner for her unacceptable behavior, Rona can be understood. And all of sudden, the wearing of masks and the need for social distancing isn't quite as intimidating as it all relates back to this creature who isn't doing as she should.
The pictures have created conversation and much understanding.....not to mention a best-selling little green children's book. Yet, the best-selling part was never part of the intention. Don't tell anyone but it was merely an outcome of a mother trying to help her children process what was going on in our big and dynamic world. It was a simple and on-demand bedtime story gone global. It was a snuggle moment with two confused little people playing out in the world of literature, with an ISBN attached.
Since the publication of the book, the children have continued to use their art to make sense of real-world issues. We have recently lost our beloved cat, Ella, to cancer, and in this traumatic process, art and another book have resurfaced and played their part. The healing and understanding that has come from the children painting, and drawing, and chalking, and stamping, throughout our loss, has been so incredible to watch and encourage. Who knew that a two-dollar water paint set from the local supermarket could end up my most valuable parenting tool?
Who knew that five months later and four children's books later, with a fifth on the way, that art would be our best defense against a troublesome virus and beyond? Who knew that a Sunday night cuddle moment could lead to a feature in the Washington Post, or on the nightly news, or the front page of our regional newspaper? Who knew that sometimes, saying nothing, and letting my girls 'draw it out' could be the best thing I could do as a mum? I didn't five months ago, but my word I do now!
Chandra A. Clements
Chandra A. Clements
Hello 2020! Hello normality. Hello social events. Hello birthday parties and functions with friends and family. Hello coronavirus........ oh hang on. Now everything has changed.
Goodbye normality. Goodbye freedoms. Goodbye kindergarten. Goodbye birthday events. Goodbye visiting relatives and loved ones. Goodbye baby showers. There is a new normal in town. And it has no respect for how little people feel about it.
The impact of the Covid 19 pandemic on little people could be considered outside our realm of understanding. How would you feel about people wearing masks, all of a sudden, everywhere you go, and you are four years old? How would you feel when mummy or daddy tell you that you can't go to school or kindergarten anymore as there is a virus about town, yet everything is going to be OK and not to worry? How would you feel being seven, and you accidentally catch a glimpse of a death toll number on television or hear about people dying in nursing homes from this largely unknown or understood offender? How would you process being nine even, and you can no longer hug your grandmother?
Indeed, these are unique and challenging times, and no parent or caregiver was provided with an instruction book on how to manage this for ourselves, let alone for our young ones! Yet here we find ourselves, with young ones in tow, watching our every move and wondering how we are coping and how they should cope too. And it is in this process that I have discovered the therapy and support of art. During a nighttime story, invented in the spur of the moment, I began to tell my then two and four-year-old a fable about how a naughty virus, named Rona, tried to steal their fun and cause chaos in the community, but ultimately failed in 'her' endeavors. The kids listened intently and I knew at this point in time I was totally nailing a motherhood moment. This is not to negate the four thousand and eighty-three moments that have not gone as well beforehand, yet at this point in time, I was invincible and just smashing my motherhood goals for six!
The next day, my four-year-old put pencil, paint, chalk, anything she could find to paper, and off she went creating art to match my little bedtime story. This continued at her kindergarten where she added additional paintings to the mix and before long (in fact in four days!) we had all the illustrations we needed to publish a book. Mummy, not-an-author-or-self-publisher, surged ahead learning everything she needed to know about writing and publishing as fast as she could. By the end of that week, the book was locked and loaded, combining mummy's bedtime story with her daughter's artwork into a twenty-eight-page paperback called Rona Stole My Fun: The Four-Year-Old Vs the Virus. Tara, my four-year-old is the sole illustrator: a fact of which I am rather, kind-of, extremely, totally proud.
What is important here, and what has gone on to become an increasingly important approach to helping my children cope with real-world issues, is the art. Through her drawings and paintings (some involving blow art whereby we used straws to blow paint across the page and subsequently all across mummy's white granite kitchen), Tara learned to process what was happening around her with Covid 19 and became much more comfortable that she could not only understand it but also explain it to her sister, and kindergarten-aged friends. You see, Rona is scary without understanding. Yet, with a furry face and facing time in the naughty corner for her unacceptable behavior, Rona can be understood. And all of sudden, the wearing of masks and the need for social distancing isn't quite as intimidating as it all relates back to this creature who isn't doing as she should.
The pictures have created conversation and much understanding.....not to mention a best-selling little green children's book. Yet, the best-selling part was never part of the intention. Don't tell anyone but it was merely an outcome of a mother trying to help her children process what was going on in our big and dynamic world. It was a simple and on-demand bedtime story gone global. It was a snuggle moment with two confused little people playing out in the world of literature, with an ISBN attached.
Since the publication of the book, the children have continued to use their art to make sense of real-world issues. We have recently lost our beloved cat, Ella, to cancer, and in this traumatic process, art and another book have resurfaced and played their part. The healing and understanding that has come from the children painting, and drawing, and chalking, and stamping, throughout our loss, has been so incredible to watch and encourage. Who knew that a two-dollar water paint set from the local supermarket could end up my most valuable parenting tool?
Who knew that five months later and four children's books later, with a fifth on the way, that art would be our best defense against a troublesome virus and beyond? Who knew that a Sunday night cuddle moment could lead to a feature in the Washington Post, or on the nightly news, or the front page of our regional newspaper? Who knew that sometimes, saying nothing, and letting my girls 'draw it out' could be the best thing I could do as a mum? I didn't five months ago, but my word I do now!
Chandra A. Clements
Chandra A. Clements
