At a recent family storytime at the Denver Public Library, children spilled across floor cushions, holding stuffed animals, waving toys and shouting their names as they settled into an afternoon of singing and stories.
They were there for a special guest: Colorado author Ingrid Law, who came to share her new picture book, “You Are Not Alone.”
The session began the way storytime always does — with a multilingual hello song in English, Spanish, Arabic and Japanese, followed by the “Name Song.” One by one, kids were celebrated.
“Otto’s here today … let’s all shout hooray!” the librarian sang, with kids shouting “Hooray!” right on cue.
As more names were called, the children bounced and chimed in with their own additions. The room was equal parts song, laughter and wiggles, all before the main event.
“Hello, I’m so excited that I get to meet all of you and sing songs with you and share this story with you,” said Longmont-based author Ingrid Law. “I wrote a book about bedtime and about not feeling alone.”
Before she began reading, she talked to the kids about their favorite bedtime rituals.
“What is your favorite thing to do before you go to bed?” Law asked.
“Mine is to play video games!” one child exclaimed.
“Yeah. Mine is also to play video games,” another chimed in.
Law opened the book and began.
“Sometimes bedtime might feel …” she started, but a small voice sweetly interrupted.
“When you’re done reading that, can I read it when you’re done?” a little girl asked.
“I would be very happy to let you read it,” Law responded warmly.
“Sometimes bedtime might feel like the dark cave inside the gloomy woods of your favorite storybook … like it’s going to be you and no one else until morning.”
As she turned the page, Law asked, “Who uses a nightlight at night?”
“Me! Me too!” came the replies.
“I have a nightlight in every room of my house,” Law told them.
Kids began sharing their own experiences with bedtime shadows and glowing lights. Law wove their comments into the reading, pointing out illustrations of stuffed animals, dinosaurs, a “creeper” toy from Minecraft, and the child in the book holding their favorites.
Page after page, Law asked kids questions like whether they had pets at home, if they could imitate animal noises or if they lived with a grandparent. That was a moment that led to the page of the book inspired by her own mother.
“I began the text of ‘You Are Not Alone’ when I was caring for my own mom,” Law explained privately before the event began.
She had been reading a poem titled “October” by Louise Glück in which the line “you are not alone … in the dark tunnel” struck her.
“It hit me right in the heart, and tears welled up,” Law recalled.
She pointed out that the grandmother in the book, illustrated using a walker, is an homage to her mother.
“Light in the darkness,” Law said, explaining a central theme in her book. “Light to us as human beings feels like magic.”
The bigger message she hopes readers of all ages take away: reassurance and connection.
“That sense of being held by the community, being held by the world, being held by nature,” Law said.
As the children’s storytime wound down, Law sent the kids home with a message she had everyone repeat aloud together.
“You are not alone,” she read. “So always remember that.”
