CHOP Unveils New Book Teaching Kids What To Expect At Hospitals
By Mike Dougherty
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A new Berenstain Bears book unveiled at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Wednesday morning aims to help kids understand what happens inside a medical center.
For generations, the Berenstain Bears have helped kids learn about what to expect with new experiences, like starting school or moving to a new house. Author and illustrator Mike Berenstain says this book -- titled "Hospital Friends" -- was one he has always wanted to produce:
"To reassure them, make them feel safe and understand what the process is, so that was really my motivation."
CHOP president Madelline Bell got a sneak peek at the book.
"I thought he did a wonderful job of reflecting what happens here, in a very complicated place, what the doctors and nurses do and the child life specialists," she says. "But more importantly, he reflected the child's experience."
Berenstain spent many months doing research and talking with kids at the hospital before he started writing the book.