We Wear Masks

We Wear Masks is a fun tool to help children make sense of this new reality and make wearing masks less scary and more relatable.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many children have been introduced to wearing face masks and seeing others in masks. Author and illustrator Marla Lesage normalizes mask-wearing by introducing young readers to artists, ranchers, pilots, welders, scientists and many more people who already wear masks in their day-to-day lives. This delightful, rhyming picture book will help explain to children why wearing a mask is important as we interact with others in our communities. Readers will learn that, when they put on their mask, they are choosing to be kind and considerate of others.

This book can be used as a conversation starter about the pandemic, the spread of germs and viruses, and what families can do to keep themselves and the people they care about safe.

Orca Book Publishers is pleased to offer We Wear Masks in two accessible editions. The audiobook features alternate text descriptions of images, including the cover. The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

Marla Lesage is a registered nurse who loves to tell stories, both real and imagined, through urban sketching, painting, illustration and words. Her art can be found in private collections in Canada, the United States and Australia, and her debut picture book, Pirate Year Round, published in 2019. We Wear Masks was inspired by a trip Marla took with her mask-wearing children to a historic farm where they discovered an excellent benefit to wearing masks--blocking out stinky smells! Marla lives near Fredericton, New Brunswick.