North Texas Couple Pens Bilingual Kids Book On Importance Of Wearing A Mask

DENTON, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) – For parents, explaining the importance of masks during the COVID-19 pandemic to children can be challenging.

That’s why a Denton couple decided to break it down for their daughter by writing a book.

“My daughter, she’s always been scared of covering her face for any reason. She started seeing people on the street walking with masks, or on TV and she was very scared,” Martha Samaniego, a UNT graduate student said.

She and her husband, Dan Heiman, a UNT professor, co-authored the book.

They say education has always been a big part of their lives.

“We’re educators so we thought like a book might be a great way to talk to the kids!” Samaniego said.

So when there weren’t good resources on explaining masks to their daughter, they decided to write and illustrate their own. It’s a bilingual book titled “Behind my Mask.”

It unpacks different emotions and explains you may not see people’s smiles or frowns underneath a mask, but they shouldn’t scare you.

The last few pages of the book are left unfinished, so that kids can write the story behind their own mask.

“So, this is the identity component, so that they can they can draw themselves however they want and have a conversation around identity,” Samaniego said.

The couple said it can be interpreted metaphorically for the masks we wear, that you can’t see.

“Everybody can relate to the book in some way, it doesn’t matter how old you are,” Dan Heiman said.

“We hope that this book is like a hug to them and to let them know that that we feel their struggles we understand how they feel and they’re not alone,” Samaniego said.