Two Hudson County teaches spent their summer looking for ways to help their elementary school students better understand the pandemic.

The Jersey City teachers wrote the children’s book “Pete and the Pandemic,” to make the situation more accessible to the younger children.

“We always try to incorporate the real world through literature and in May the pandemic obviously just happened, so we couldn’t find anything. And it was kind of a joke, ‘Why don’t we just write one,’” says teacher and co-author Christina Reichart.

Reichart and fellow teacher Lindsay McDanel teach kindergarten and first grade at Empowerment Academy Charter School. Their book is about a little boy stuck at home because of COVID-19. He misses his friends and school, and he is scared and worried about his mother who is a doctor. But in the end, Pete manages to find some good.

“Even though he can’t see his friends and he’s really stressed out about how he’s learning, he got some time with his family that he may not have had before,” Reichart says. “And they got to make some special memories.”

The book takes place in Jersey City and highlights its diversity. It also touches on some of the social issues going in 2020 that kids may be confused about and their parents or teachers may need some help talking about.

“Pete and the Pandemic” is available on Amazon. The authors say that they are looking to get it into local bookstores and eventually larger chains.