“You might feel alone right now, but we promise that you’re not,” Avendano said. “Kids love holding a book, it’s a huge part of the reading experience,” said Avendano.“ But in this moment, we realize that production is a challenge.”Īvendano hopes the story helps drive home one important message to the young children reading it. One day, the sisters hope to make “The Big Alone” available in a hardcopy version. She said it’s already been downloaded in countries as far away as Nepal, Hungary, Turkey and Malaysia. Since publishing the book, Avendano said they’ve received plenty of positive feedback from parents, and at least $2,000 in donations that she said mainly came from supportive family members.Īvendano also said she’s happy to see the book reaching readers all over the world. “We wanted to keep a few things in mind – we wanted to get it out quickly we wanted to make sure the illustrations were universal so any kid from anywhere could understand it we wanted to make it available in multiple languages and we wanted to make it free,” said Avendano. In addition to English, the story is available in seven other languages - French, Italian, Chinese, Spanish, German, Russian and Tagalog – all thanks to translation help they received from friends and family.Īvendano said the book came together in a week, largely through countless emails, text messages and shared Google documents. Newsletter sign-up: Get The COVID-19 Brief sent to your inbox.The 25-page book, described online as “a book for kids everywhere in the age of social distancing,” uses large black and white lettering with creative illustrations. The pair had been talking about making a children’s book together for years, but the pandemic propelled them to act quickly. Some of my friends’ kids started asking questions, like: ‘When can I see my friends?’ or ‘How long do I have to stay home?’”Īnd that’s when the idea for The Big Alone took root.Īvendano called up her sister Jan, a 34-year-old graphic design director who also lives in Toronto, to help bring her story ideas to life. “After the initial excitement of being at home wore off, the excitement kind of turned into fear or anxiety.

“It was eye-opening to see their journey with their kids,” Avendano said in a phone interview with CTVNews.ca. Alex Avendano says she was inspired to write a children’s book explaining physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, while she was out walking her dog one evening in late March.Īvendano, a 30-year-old communications strategist from Toronto, said she was overwhelmed at the time by stories from her friends who were struggling to work from home and manage child-care needs.

The big alone