A new coloring book is helping kids draw clear lines between COVID-19 and the vaccines.More than 2,000 copies of the coloring book, "Emma RNA Saves the Day," were delivered recently to public schools in Massachusetts. UMass Chan Medical School is offering the coloring books for free to schools or anyone who wants to download a copy from its website.Author Angela Messmer-Blust, an assistant professor at the school, said her 5-year-old daughter is the inspiration behind using a "super girl" named Emma RNA to represent a COVID-19 vaccine.With her friends Auntie Body and Mister T, Emma saves the world from a dangerous new villain named Spike Man."We really wanted a way to use some of the analogies to explain the science in a fun way, so we hope to take some of the fear out of it for the kids and parents and other adults who may be questioning is this safe?" Messmer-Blust said. "There's a lot of misinformation out there, so this kind of cuts through the noise a little bit."Messmer-Blust said the book is written for kids in grades 5 through 8, but many adults have told her it helped them better understand how vaccines work and debunked some common myths, including the false theory that vaccines can somehow change a person's DNA.Click here to download a copy. Watch the full story in the video above.

As thousands of Kansas City children head back to the classroom this month, some elementary students will find something new in the curriculum. It's a coloring book that is designed to address some of the heavy issues they've faced in the past year, specifically COVID-19."This is sort of the representation of the coronavirus with the world," said Kathy Carver, president of KC Regional Simulation Alliance.The creators of the coloring book want children to better understand the pandemic on their level. To understand that it's a health issue around the world, not just here."They hear about what, you know, is on the news or with their parents talking about. Maybe they don't understand so this was a way for them to also be able to share some of maybe the feelings that they have and to learn a little bit about COVID-19 and how to stay safe," Carver said.Carver heads up a group of local health educators at KCRSA. Normally they take their hands-on learning approach into the classroom. That stopped with the pandemic, so they decided a coloring book was one way to engage the children and a resource for teachers to spark discussion."They know their children. They know how to be able to implement it in their classroom and at what level, or you know, what conversations they want to really engage," Carver said.The coloring book also addresses cultural diversity. Another big topic of discussion this past year. Educators created the lessons. Students from the Kansas City Art Institute did the rest."The beauty is that you're going to see multiple students all sharing their artistic talent so you get culture, you get a flavor of how they also could represent everybody," Carver said.And an understanding of how everybody's in this together. More than 4,000 of the coloring books will be in Kansas City Public Schools on Monday.