LAFAYETTE, Calif. - A new book is out about the pandemic. Its author is an East Bay girl who wrote it last year when she was in the fourth grade. It's about the coronavirus lockdown and loss through the eyes of a child.
"I lost laughter and joy. I lost so many things to the coronavirus," reads one passage.
Stella Ciarlantini of Lafayette wrote the 90-page self-published memoir called "The Story Of Stella" last year when she 10-years old.
Yes, you read correctly, a memoir by a 10-year-old.
"I have always loved writing," she says.
Stella says she began the project as a way to cope with her struggles with the lockdown, distance learning, and being away from friends.
"Writing the book and recording my thoughts was a good way of processing events that were happening. So I thought my book would help other people with that too," Stella said.
Throughout the two months Stella spent on the book, her family had no idea what she was writing about.
"The first time I read it was when she finished it. It just brought tears to my eyes," said her mother Heather Cousins.
The idea to write her thoughts about the pandemic stemmed from a conversation Stella had with her fourth-grade teacher at Lafayette Elementary School.
"It was really pretty special that she took something so hard for her and other people and used it as an opportunity to inspire others," said her teacher Jamie Whaley.
"We will get through this. Eventually, it will all be over. And our lives will get back to normal. Or a new normal," Stella says.
And when some type of normal does return, perhaps Stella will be chronicling that too.