Chinese children's books about fighting COVID-19 published in UK

LONDON, May 4 (Xinhua) -- A series of Chinese children's picture books about fighting COVID-19 while helping the children through the pandemic has been launched in Britain.

The book series, named Fighting the Epidemic: Staying at Home Series in the English version, was created in January 2020, when the Chinese publisher Phoenix Juvenile and Children's Publishing Ltd invited some of China's top children's writers and illustrators to create six picture books designed to help children through the pandemic, the publisher told Xinhua Tuesday.

The English edition is published by New Classic Press in Britain this month and its Kindle edition will be also available from May.

Written from a young child's perspective, the six books fully express the theme of great love through different families and lives.

For example, in one of the stories, A Journey of 9,000 Millimetres, a boy and his sister have to entertain themselves as their parents are working at the hospital during the pandemic. While they measure their apartment, which they found is massively 9,000-mm long and 5,000-mm wide, they set off on a journey of imagination and adventure.

In another story The Mask that Loved to Count, the mask, an N95 respirator, is a special mask saved for when someone really needs it. Impatient to be used, the mask counts everything it sees, and gradually learns that its role is also to bring hope to its owner.

The bestselling books were translated into English by Helen Wang, a curator at the British Museum and winner of the Marsh Christian Award for Children's Literature in Translation.

She said: "This was a milestone publication in China. The six books are engaging and empathetic stories about changes in family life during the pandemic, and present a variety of situations from a child's perspective."

"They offer practical and reassuring information, not only what key workers are doing, and how everyone can help to fight the virus, but also show how to articulate feelings, fear, sadness, boredom, missing loved ones, etc., and think of creative ways to help each other through difficult times," she said.

Wang Yongbo, president of Phoenix Juvenile and Children's Publishing Ltd which is based in east China's Jiangsu Province, said the series helped many families in China talk to young children about the pandemic, and he hopes young readers in Britain enjoy reading these stories and share their experiences of coping with the pandemic.

The series' international rights have been sold to 19 countries worldwide, and translated into various languages.