Dreams can still come true amidst a pandemic. For first-time author Shivani Ramoutar, early aspirations to write and publish her own children’s book came to fruition.

Ramoutar’s pilot publication, Susan meets Mia the mask, tells a story about her personal experience explaining covid19 to her children. It addresses some of the pertinent questions that most parents were faced with during this time.

Online school, stay-at-home restrictions, the inability to see friends in person, wearing a mask and using sanitizer are among a host of other open conversations Susan has with her mom in this simple but very relevant story. Susan’s mom explains these changes to her daughter gently since covid19 remains a scary topic, even among adults.

One of the book’s aims is to reassure both parents and children that they’re not alone on this historic journey through a pandemic. Ramoutar believes her first book will do just that.

“Susan is picked up by her mom at school and a conversation about covid19 ensues. They come home, they talk about it, they put on the television and she tries on her mask.

“Susan’s mom gives her, her first bottle of hand sanitizer which she is excited about because she never owned one before.

[caption id="attachment_919335" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Shivani Ramoutar used her own experience explaining covid19 to her children to write the book, Susan meets Mia the mask. - Marvin Hamilton[/caption]

“Her mom tells her that she may not have ballet or swim classes anymore. It’s a lot for her to comprehend,” Ramoutar said.

Similarly, the debut author remembers picking up her daughter and son at school in mid-March 2020 and unbeknownst to the three of them, it would be the last day of physical school for over 18 months to date.

Ramoutar reflected on the plethora of questions she faced from her own children about why there was no more school. How would they learn from a computer? Why was a face-mask necessary? Why couldn’t they go on an airplane or attend birthday parties anymore?

“They were so inquisitive and I had to answer all their questions. I decided I would write this book based on my experience explaining this virus to them. This book will serve as a reminder of something that we went through,” she added.

Writing has always been Ramoutar’s passion, particularly poetry and short stories. She even wrote songs and poems for friends and slogans for those with companies and products. This was something that came naturally and she enjoyed it.

Famed author Enid Blyton was her first childhood inspiration and for every birthday and Christmas, her parents would always get her a new book which she’d complete in hours.

This love for reading progressed to writing and she began writing her own short stories and poems.

“Having two kids in primary school also meant that I would have to help them nurture their creative writing juices and propel them to enjoy this love of reading that I had at their age and I was most certainly up for that challenge,” she said.

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