From the Windowpane is a book about a little girl named Alyssa. She is experiencing many feelings during the lockdown due to the Covid 19 pandemic. She looks out the window and reflects on everything that is happening and the new rules in place – washing your hands, social distancing, and wearing masks. She’s also missing her school classes and her friends. As she looks outside through the windowpane, she sees a tree and thinks about the freedom the tree feels wishing in a way that she was the tree. The book then reflects on the positive lessons we have all learned from the changes the pandemic brought to our lives.
Dr. Ida Acuña-Garza recently retired as chief executive officer for the South Texas Coalition. She is the owner of Successful Lifestyles, LLC, an educational consulting firm. She has engaged in community outreach for over forty years—as county extension agent for Family and Consumer Sciences and as director of research for a parent outreach program. She received doctor’s degree in adult education at Texas A&M University in College Station in 1990; master’s degree in counseling and guidance from the University of Texas-Pan American in 1978; and bachelor’s degree in home economics, specializing in food and nutrition from Texas A&M University in Kingsville in 1970. She has also authored a number of children’s books—The Adventures of Callie: Callie Finds a Home, The Adventures of Callie: Callie’s New Friends, The Cat Who Ate Spinach, Super Copper: Yoga Cat, From the Windowpane: A Book About the Pandemic, and The Birthday Party. To her, writing children’s books is a means to help parents teach life skills to children, promote reading, comprehension, and life-long learning.
