Little Health Ambassadors, a children's book franchise by clinician-turned-author Ken Korber, will release the second edition of its children’s activity book, Grace + Friends: Burn Prevention and Fire Safety, which was co-authored with Paul Possenti, Director of Trauma Services and Emergency Management at the Yale New Haven Health System's Bridgeport Hospital. It is expected to come out in early October, coinciding with Fire Prevention Week in the US.
First published in 2019, the book contains a variety of activities for children to teach them about fires and how to prevent burns, featuring eight-year-old Grace and her friends. These include matching columns for different types of fire extinguishers, solving a maze to rescue a puppy from a burning house, and drawing an escape plan for their family in case a fire happens. The second edition will increase the number of pages to 45, up from 30 in the first edition. There is also a page containing Grace's cooking tips, which reminds readers and their parents to set the grill in an open area away from the house.
According to Korber, he and Possenti decided to release a second edition of Burn Prevention and Fire Safety because of the very positive reception for the first edition. Korber provided copies of the book to around 40 fire departments in the Midwestern US for use in their outreach and education activities in local schools, and feedback from the fire departments said that the book has the potential to save lives by changing how children react during a fire. Korber also conducted a survey where first-grade teachers asked students 60 days after the event about what they remembered about the fire department's visit, and two-thirds of students mentioned the book.
“I believe that was an incredibly positive assessment of stickiness and impact because most students still remembered our book two months after the big fireman in full gear visited their school. And, for first graders, 60 days is an incredibly long time,” Korber says.
With the release of the second edition, Korber hopes to reach more organizations, such as medical groups and fire departments, across the country, and help them spread the message about burn prevention and fire safety. He is also open to partnering with organizations overseas and having the book translated into other languages. And, most of all, he aims to reach more parents and children and help them keep safe from the dangers caused by fire.
According to Korber, he was inspired to do the book by having encountered burn victims during his career as a physician assistant. Possenti, who is the medical director for a trauma and burn unit, provided his medical knowledge and perspective for the book. Both of them are alumni of Drexel University, and they received the People of Purpose Award from the university in 2020 for the book.
“Our main goal in creating Grace + Friends: Burn Prevention and Fire Safety is to grow awareness of fire risks and help protect families from disasters, such as house fires. Most families don't sit down and talk to each other about a fire escape plan. But, through the book, we can be able to harness children's natural curiosity and make them aware about the need for an escape plan, and hopefully get them to talk about it with their parents,” Korber says.
Media contact:
Name: Ken Korber
Email: [email protected]
