Submitted photo
Park Side Elementary School teacher Theresa Leek holds up a copy of “Social Distancing and Me, 1 2 3” in her second grade classroom.

MARSHALL — After operating her own custom art design business for two years, Marshall High School sophomore Anna Bucher added yet another accomplishment to her resume over the summer in becoming a children’s book illustrator for “Social Distancing and Me, 1 2 3” with her cousin Rick Meyer.

The timely story written by Meyer, a Monticello, Iowa native, offers a message of hope in the midst of the pandemic using vibrant illustrations of colorful mask-wearing farm animals that come to form the colors of the rainbow when put together at the end of the book. The animals also demonstrate proper social distancing using one “cow-length” and other examples to represent six feet of separation.

As a first-time author, Meyer drew upon his experience reading countless children’s stories to his kids Harrison and Sophie through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. The idea to use the length of farm animals to demonstrate proper social distancing was sparked on a whim while watching a news segment about farming and reminiscing about his own childhood.

“Having grown up on a farm, I was thinking ‘gosh, wouldn’t it be great to give kids an idea of how far six feet away is using animals?’ And that’s how the whole thing came into play,” said Meyer.

It wasn’t long after inspiration struck that Meyer reached out to Bucher, whose background in art made her a perfect fit to do the illustrations.

“Rick came to me with a super simple rough draft of the book and the format he wanted it to be in,” said Bucher. “From there, we were able to brainstorm how to intrigue younger children and help them learn multiple things at the same time.”

The book began to take shape during the family’s annual summer trip to Okoboji, Iowa where Anna’s mom, Lisa Bucher, ensured that the two were staying on track with the book’s publication — earning her the title of “momager” in the epilogue.

Meyer describes the trip to Okoboji as less of a vacation and more of a work trip for Anna, who spent the majority of the time doing the illustrations for the book.

“Anna did all of it. If it weren’t for Anna, this book would not be here,” said Meyer. “Because one, she does all the amazing drawings and two she went to Amazon, logged in through my wife’s account, and did all of the formatting on her own.”

Meeting the formatting guidelines was challenging at times for Bucher, who made multiple revisions before the book was officially published on Aug. 29.

“It was very difficult getting our book published on Amazon because in order to do so, everything had to match up with their formatting,” said Bucher. “Each time I would upload a copy, we would have to wait about a day to hear back as to what edits needed to be made. This went on for quite some time. Overall, I spent about a month on the process –draft to press.”

The publishing process and plans for marketing the book has created plenty of fodder for discussion between co-authors Meyer and Anna along with Lisa Bucher. For Meyer, it’s been the most enjoyable aspect of the journey.

“The most fun part about the book has just been the quality time with my aunt and cousin,” said Meyer.

Since its publication, Meyer and Bucher have been met with rave reviews from teachers. Local Park Side Elementary School teachers Kelly Konietzko, Emily Hoppe, Theresa Leek, Amy Jean Barker and Angela Rien Buchert have all shown their support for the book by reading it to their classes.

“We have heard lots of feedback from teachers and it has been super encouraging to know that their kids are loving our book,” said Bucher. “It’s crazy to think that many teachers are reading this book to their classes. We have received many pictures of teachers reading this book to their classes.”

Among the many things teachers enjoy about the book is the repetition used to keep student’s engaged, along with counting exercises and use of the colors of the rainbow.

“It’s just a fun way to teach kids how to wear their mask,” Meyer added. “If it doesn’t teach them how to wear a mask, it’s going to teach them the colors and animal noises. I just think it’s a fun book.”

The book is currently available on Amazon.com where Meyer and Bucher are working to get the book into the hands of as many people as possible through marketing efforts.

“We would love to see this book go all over the United States and into the hands of many teachers and children,” said Bucher. “We have been working on our marketing strategy and getting “Social Distancing and Me, 1 2 3” into stores and schools all over.”

As more copies become available through Amazon, Meyer and Bucher hope to create a national buzz by sending the book to “Good Morning America.”

“We’re going to plan on starting to market it more heavily and trying to send it to ‘Good Morning America’ and see if they pick it up,” said Meyer.