Lucy's Mask

Book excerpt: What happens when you're stuck in your house with nothing to do? Lucy can't play with her friends and she can't go outside. When she discovers that her mom is making her a new mask, her creativity is sparked. Lucy loves masks. They feed her lively imagination, which sends her to her toy box full of costumes and to wild worlds of make-believe adventure. With her mask, Lucy becomes a pirate, a queen, a superhero and more. She doesn't realize that the mask her mom is making is not a costume mask at all but a Covid-19 mask, and that it will make her a real-life superhero who can help save the world. In the unsettling world brought about by the coronavirus, husband and wife team Lisa Sirkis Thompson and John Thompson bring a light-hearted touch to the serious subject of social distance and personal protection, as seen through the eyes of an imaginative little girl. As she thinks about what a mask (at least, her understanding of a mask) enables her to do, Lucy transforms her playroom into wildly fantastic environments, far beyond the walls of her house. For young kids trying to understand a new world of masks and isolation, and for parents searching for stories of comfort and reassurance during the pandemic, Lucy's Mask is a welcome new addition to reading time. A portion of proceeds from sales of Lucy's Mask will be donated to frontline workers and first responders.