’When Rona Visited My Town’: Chesapeake therapist writes children’s book about the coronavirus
Rona #Rona
The coronavirus pandemic is hard enough for adults to understand. But teaching kids about a threat they can’t even see? Good luck.
Suzanne Davis has found a way.
A licensed professional counselor and play therapist in Chesapeake, Davis recently published a children’s book called “When Rona Visited my Town.”
It tells a fictional story about the disruptions “Rona” causes to school-age children to give them a voice about how the pandemic has impacted them, Davis said.
“It was my way of trying to provide hope (during) something that is very confusing,” she said. “In order to make sense out of things that don’t make sense.”
Davis, 38, is originally from Martinsville and came to Hampton Roads to get her master’s degree in community counseling at Regent University a little over a decade ago. She got a second master’s from Regent a few years later, in law.
She now runs Davis Counseling & Play Therapy Center in the Indian River neighborhood, working with children and families.
Almost a year ago, when Virginia first implemented restrictions to fight the coronavirus, Davis said she had to figure out how to continue therapy amid the state mandates. She undertook training to be able to transition to virtual services.
“This is a shared experience that we all are trying to navigate how to make sense out of what is happening and how to work through it,” she said. “And so I was definitely seeing the impact that it was having on both children and families.”
Jobs lost, schools closed, social connections shut off. Davis started looking for resources to help families through these experiences. But the only books she could find were “very much fear-based.”
“Nothing was very encouraging, positive, empowering or anything,” she said. “So I just sat down one day and the words just flowed.”
That was over the summer, and Davis has since ended up with a 30-page children’s book. She connected with a family friend and Navy veteran now living in Texas, Tex McDorman, who provided illustrations, including embodying “Rona” as a sickly green sphere with big red eyes and a frown.
Davis sent a manuscript to the Library of Congress for copyright and toyed with self-publishing. But she teamed up with Pittsburgh-based Dorrance Publishing, which started selling the book through its website last month.
The book is currently being sold in paperback, with hardcover and e-book versions on the way.
Davis said her goal is “helping children to be able to live courageously, even though things don’t make sense … to be brave when circumstances are beyond their control.”
Having the words and images to describe what’s happening can ultimately provide some semblance of control and a way to think it through in a different perspective, she said.
For instance, at one point in the story, Davis puts the character of “Rona” in a timeout.
“Rona, you do not understand manners or respect others’ boundaries,” she wrote. “Instead, you take over and claim what does not belong to you. Rona, you need a time out.”
The book could also serve as a sort of time capsule for the anxieties of 2020, she said — and a resource for children and families to turn to in future crises.
Katherine Hafner, 757-222-5208, katherine.hafner@pilotonline.com