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On Friday, November 12, Graham Oberholtzer (in blue) and Landon Sheils took some time to autograph a copy of Squeezed, Covid the Constrictor, reflections by students of Cook County. Standing behind the boys are Ann Marie Mershon (L) and Anne Swallow Gillis who were project managers of the book. Staff photo Brian Larsen
A new locally written paperback book is out just in time for Christmas. The book is called Squeezed: Covid the Constrictor. It is a collection of pictures, poems, essays and short pieces written by more than 130 students from Cook County schools who tell about the affects the on-going plague has had on their lives.
The works were collected by teachers and the project was an initiative of WISE (women’s initiatives for service and education).
Samples include: “One day when I was in second grade we went home from school, and we never went back. There was a virus. It was coronavirus. I knew nothing! I was only eight. I had to go online and went to Zoom. That’s how I talked to my friends.” Maddy Spry, 3rd grade.
“Everything was closed. I could not go to Camp DuNord. That’s where I see my cousins, do the Polar Bear Plunge, and when I mostly see my Nana, but I can’t do that because of COVID!!!! COVID made me feel frustrated. I could not go to my Nana’s house for Easter. That’s my tradition.” Landon Sheils, 7th grade.
With school mostly taught online last year, some kids liked to take classes from their homes but admitted to missing spending time with their friends. Others did more outside activities than they normally had done before covid, still others lost motivation and shutdown, withdrawing inward. No one, however, came away unchanged. The book captures that in big ways and small ways. Covid-19 may eventually be tamped down, but it’s affects are multi-generational and will last and live through us for the rest of our lives, especially the kids who felt the pinch and the punch of the pandemic the most.
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