Local Children's Author, Daughter Host Virtual Story Time

ROCKVILLE, MD — A Montgomery County children's author and his 8-year-old daughter are bringing story time to the masses during the coronavirus pandemic.

For the past few weeks, Andy Szul and his eldest daughter and co-author, Victoria, have been reading books to kids through their YouTube channel, racking up hundreds of views.

"Especially now, with the COVID-19 pandemic impacting kids in a variety of ways, it's more important than ever to provide children's books online in as many forms as possible — including video read alongs," said Szul.

To date, the father-daughter duo has hosted four virtual read-alongs on their YouTube channel.

In their videos, which are no more than six minutes long, Andy and Victoria take turns reading excerpts of books — some of them original works — and filming close-ups of the colorful illustrations.

The pair co-authored their first children's book, "Chipmunk Champs Buddy & Swifty," in 2015 and released a sequel, "Magical Lake," two years later.

Both books chronicle the adventures of two imaginary chipmunks from Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains. Szul said that they are planning for a third installment in the children's series.

A video of Andy and Victoria reading "Magical Lake" is posted below: