A San Francisco neighborhood newspaper staffed entirely by children arrived on our (virtual) doorsteps this weekend, and the timing couldn’t be more perfect.

Six Feet of Separation is staffed entirely by kids sheltering in place from the coronavirus, and shepherded by Chris Colin, a San Francisco author, journalist and father of two. The 29-page Bernal Heights publication is, in every way, a stellar reflection of humanity in these difficult times.

There’s a 7-year-old child’s review of a routine linguini with meat sauce dinner (three out of five stars), two reviews of the television show “The Good Place” and a comics page, including the debut of “The Crime Fighting Super Fish vs. Coronavirus.” The newspaper also has birdhouse building instructions, a recipe for banana bread and at least one data journalist on staff —14-year-old Griffin Morgan, who documented the takeout status and hours of every restaurant on Cortland Avenue.

Below is an interview with Colin on the genesis of the project, why it’s easier working with kid journalists than adults, and how others can start a kid newspaper in their own neighborhoods.

After you’re done, read the entire publication here.

Q: How long have you lived in Bernal Heights?

A: About 15 years now. I was in the Mission District before that and spent a lot of time in Oakland before that. I grew up in Virginia.

Q: What was your first step in creating Six Feet of Separation?

A: Any time I’ve ever done something creative, I just get it started so I can’t back out of it, then I figure out how to do it.

I typed up an email and sent it off to a few friends. I figured there would be a handful of parents writing back to me and coercing their kids into writing some (litttle) thing. But it really caught on. I stopped counting after 40 submissions.

Q: What were you expecting?

A: I expected there would be a lot of processing of big heavy feelings from the kids. Essays that reflected anxiety or uncertainty. And that’s really not what I got. That part fascinated me. I think kids are fully convulsed by this thing, but in a totally different way.

What consumes them are the things that are right there in front of them. … How has my schedule been transformed? We eat dinner at 6 now? What’s my screen time allotment now? Their concerns are very immediate and small-seeming, which is either demented or really enlightened of them.

Q: There’s so much humor, which is not what I was anticipating. The social distancing hula hoop …

A: Oh my God. I thought that was brilliant. And pranks. I was happy to learn that some pranks are very much within reach. If you have a glass of water and a yellow or gold marker in it, then it looks like pee.

Q: Was there a submission you received, maybe one of the early ones, that made you realize, “This is going to work.”

A: Definitely. When this kid named George summed up the entire “Terminator” franchise in two sentences. I was like, “Yeah, maybe we do need more kids working for our daily newspapers.”

Then there was the review, by another kid named Ender, who wrote a pretty lukewarm review of tonight’s dinner. That was something special.

Q: You have two reviews of “The Good Place.”

A: My editorial policy is “yes.” If this whole newspaper is going to be reviews of “The Good Place,” then that’s what it’s going to be.

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Q: How soon after the shelter in place did you think a local newspaper written by kids would be a good idea?

A: That was one of the first things I thought of when we started realizing life was about to get turned inside out. I don’t have many talents in this life, so journalism was the thing that popped into my head.

Being a parent and being a parent in a neighborhood with a gazillion kids, I just know a lot of children. I have two of my own and it was clear that parents were going to be scrambling to find non-screen-based activities for their kids in the coming months. I felt like this was a terrifying and baffling turn of events for grownups, and I felt like kids are going to be going through it too in their own funny little way.

One, it just seemed like fun, but also it seemed like — I don’t know — it might give them a tiny little microscopic dallop of agency at a time when they have even less than they usually do as young people.

Q: It looks like the kids had a lot of fun.

A: Suddenly all these kids were being (kept) inside, while something sort of mysterious and invisible was happening outside. You couldn’t see coronavirus. You just knew you were being shut indoors for some sort of inexplicable reason. I felt like that was stoking this curiousity in kids.

They’re living this strange new indoor life. That curiosity plus that bubbling up of feelings about their new reality, it seemed like it was made for newspapering.

Q: What was the hardest part putting this together?

A: I signed up with the most frustrating unintuitive web site I could find for laying out this thing. … But I finally got the hang of it. It will go a lot faster now.

Q: And the easiest part?

A: The easiest part? I spend most of my time reading terrifying reports about coronavirus as a grown-up. And worrying about my family and loved ones and the state of the world in general. The easy part was having this thing that I could toggle over to that was in this world, of the moment, but this whole other conversation happening on another register.

It was a little bit of a balm for me to have that.

Q: It’s a balm for all of us. I’ve shared Six Feet of Separation throughout my household.

A: Can I do a little hyping here?

Issues two through infinity will be even better, because now I know what I’m doing.

Q: I saw on your Facebook page that other parents in other neighborhoods want to start newspapers.

A: I would love it if this would happen in every neighborhood. This isn’t exclusive, or a Bernal thing. That’s why I say “yes” to everyone from elsewhere. We might end up with a really beefy foreign correspondent’s section.

But yes, I hope that other neighborhoods absolutely start these. I think they’re super fun and a great outlet for kids. And it’s doable. I want it to be fun for the kids. They have enough pressure on them now. … That’s what I hope would happen everywhere.

Q: Is this your first experience as a newspaper publisher?

A: I thought it was, but then I remembered years ago when I lived in West Oakland with some friends, (We) made a little newspaper called the Henry Street Herald. But that was jokey, and this is … I guess … still sort of jokey. But now there’s a pandemic attached so there’s some seriousness to it too.

Q: What’s the difference between working with kids and working with adults?

A: I’ll tell you one thing, and this is disheartening for us writers. Kids file a lot faster. And they don’t need a lot of hand-holding. There’s not a lot of whimpering with kids in terms of getting their copy in. At least I don’t hear about it. …

I’m starting to have a sneaking suspicion that kids are more enlightened in general than we are.

Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicle’s pop cuture critic. Email: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @PeterHartlaub