The opioid addiction is killing people at alarming rates and tearing families apart.

Local fifth-graders at Baden Academy used their experience in the opioid crisis to raise awareness in a new children’s book, written by children, called “What the Heck is Opioid Addiction?”

It features pages of colorful pictures and illustrations, with disturbing facts on a very dark crisis.

It takes a look at the science of addiction and how opioids can affect the brain. The book also shares resources for addiction help.

The backbone and leader of their research is their fifth-grade classmate, Aleenia Reich. She has one of the most jarring and horrific family experiences with opioid addiction. Her mother is a heroin addict, her father, a convicted drug dealer, is in prison and her grandmother, her legal guardian, is a recovering addict.

“It really affected me because I had to grow up by myself, understanding that my sister and me were going through something very hard with our parents not being there for us,” Reich said. “I just wanted to share that information so everybody can have an understanding of it and understand that this stuff is not good and that they shouldn’t even try to pick up or touch a drug.”

The students leaned heavily on research provided by the American Society of Addiction Medicine. They took what they learned and laid it out in their book for kids to understand. Their research left them shaken and motivated.

“Not only does it affect the people who take the drugs, but maybe their children, their grandkids, their cousins, their nephews,” Quincy Sirko, fifth-grader at Baden Academy, said.

“It doesn’t just affect the person, but the other people around them.”

The book was published by a local publisher called Grow a Generation, located in Sewickley. All of the money from book sales will be donated to the American Society of Addiction Medicine.