When the "grownup virus" hits, kids who live in the same apartment
building must cope with strange new rules and extended time at home with
parents and siblings.
And they survive brilliantly, each in their own way. Twin boys throw
themselves into an independent research assignment on prehistoric people
and embrace their own devolution. A budding track star is encouraged to
run laps on his balcony by a neighbor who has a secret crush on him. A
classroom troublemaker reaches out to a teacher when his own father
begins to exhibit signs of mental illness. A young entrepreneur saves
himself and his hairdresser mother from financial collapse by renting
out the family dog. And a girl finds a way to communicate with her
hearing-impaired neighbor so that they can spy on the rest of the
building.
The stories follow the course of the pandemic, from the early measures
through lockdown, as the kids in the building observe the stresses on
the adults around them and use their own quirky kid ingenuity to come up
with ways to make their lives better. Funny, poignant and wise, this
book will long outlive even the pandemic.
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language
Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.3
Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama,
drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts,
words, or actions).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.6
Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are
narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person
narrations.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.3
Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a
story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how
characters interact).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.5
Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to
provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6
Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how
events are described.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3
Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of
episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot
moves toward a resolution.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.5
Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into
the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of
the theme, setting, or plot.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6
Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or
speaker in a text.
