“The book, A Girl Called Corona Sofia, throws up general issues about misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic or other epidemics like Ebola Virus among the people, and a lack of willingness to seek information about how it is spread.”
Book Review: A Girl Called Corona Sofia
The discovery of a visitor to Nigeria with the Ebola Virus this week prompted me to dig up the review for this week from my archives. It is a children’s literature, but it discusses the incursions of the dreaded Coronavirus. I am drawn to it because of the somewhat similar attention that both COVID-19 and Ebola Virus command.
The book for today therefore gives us a peep into the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the world, especially its effect on children and the school setting. The book was the winner of the 2021 ANA Prize for Children’s Literature.
The book is titled, A Girl Called Corona Sofia, written by Jide Ogunlana and published in 2020 by Learning Solutions, Ibadan.
The author, Jide Ogunlana, is a graduate of English from the Obafemi Awolowo University, and he has taught English and Literature in Nigeria and abroad.
He has staged his two plays, Verbal Violence, and Clash of the Gods, and he has also published children’s stories like Wura and a White Goat (2018), and Primrose and the Kidnappers, a story that won the 2018 Association of Nigerian Authors Prize for Children’s Literature.
In this book, A Girl Called Corona Sofia, we’re introduced to the girl Sofia. She travels to the United States of America (USA) with her mother. They are welcomed by her father. WE
After some time, they’re stuck in America. The Coronavirus strikes and schools are closed, shops and amusement parks are shut, and people are not allowed to travel. So the lockdown holds Sofia back from returning to Nigeria and school.
Finally, Mrs Fasasi and her daughter, Sofia, return to Nigeria, but another huddle awaits them.
They have to be quarantined in a hotel. The government needs to be sure that they do not have the Coronavirus. And while in isolation, Sofia is worried that she is held up in a hotel while her mates are in school.
One of the highlights of children’s literature, which the author plays up sufficiently, is the naive inquisitive nature of children. Sofia here is seen bothering her mother with lots of questions, as smart children are known to ask.
In this book, the author tells us that Mrs Fasasi, Sofia’s mother, has contracted COVID-19 and has to be put in isolation, and Sofia is also put in another room.
Eventually, after some days in the isolation centre, Mrs Fasasi gets well, and Sofia and her mother return to Ibadan from Lagos in a taxi.
Although the book, A Girl Called Corona Sofia is a children’s book, it discusses the issue of stigmatisation and avoidance of people who are known to have been to, or returned from countries with high cases of COVID-19
So, we read about how Awa and her mother try to avoid Sofia and her mother, and how the members of the tailors association also try to make sure that Mrs Fasasi, their president, did not attend their meeting.
Here we are allowed a peep into the mind of a young child and the emotional trauma she has to contend with among her friends all because of the perception that she might infect others with a disease, even though she is not having the Coronavirus.
The matter is even aggravated by the conduct of Sofia’s classmates, especially with Awa’s influence.
This is how the author describes it: “As she followed Miss Williams, Sofia’s heart began to pound faster with fear. It was pounding so loudly that she could hear the sound. She tried to remember the words of her mother and relax but it was not easy. She just followed Miss Williams, her class teacher, like a sheep.
“The classroom had two doors. The door that led to the Director’s office was the front door.
“As Sofia and Miss Williams were near the front door, Sofia saw a girl from the class standing up, looking out of the window at them. She could not quickly recognise her because everybody was wearing a face mask.
“But as she got close to the classroom, she noticed that it was Awa Amole. As they got closer still, she heard Awa shouting something. Then she disappeared from the window.
“When Sofia and Miss Williams entered the class, they saw that all the students had run out of the class through the second door at the back. They all stood outside in groups and everybody was murmuring silently.
“Sofia could not understand what they were murmuring about. The only word she could understand in what they were saying was the word ‘Corona’. She could not think well. She was feeling dizzy. Before Miss Williams could get to her, she had fallen down and fainted.” (P58)
Again, the book, The Girl Called Corona Sofia, throws up general issues about misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic or other epidemics like Ebola Virus among the people, and a lack of willingness to seek information about how it is spread and so on.
So, we read about how a school is almost brought down by uninformed parents and how innocent children are almost ruined by fake information about the Coronavirus.
For me, the high point of the book is the author’s ability to use the experience of Sofia and her mother, to make us all stronger and better informed about the Coronavirus.
So, we see here that, with the collaboration of the health authorities, the schools and Sister Mabel, the excellent nurse, Sofia’s life experience serves as a springboard for elevating conversations about the disease.
The author also proves here that many issues can be solved and clarifications made to them when young ones are brought in and made champions.
In the final analysis, this 10-chapter book is a well written work. The author has successfully shown, throughout the 87 pages of the book, that children’s books can be written so beautifully to the extent that even adults can enjoy them.
