Ingrid Law is best known for her middle grade novels Savvy (which won a 2009 Newbery Honor), Scumble, and Switch. Now, 10 years after the release of Switch, Law returns to the children’s lit scene with a picture book debut of the bedtime variety. You Are Not Alone, illustrated by Xin Li, provides readers with a reassuring anecdote to nighttime anxieties using the titular refrain. PW spoke with Law about the comfort to be found in poetry, bringing light into the darkness, her work as a bookseller in Colorado, and her next picture book.
This new book marks your picture book debut after three successful middle grade novels. What motivated your shift to picture books?
I first joined the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators in the late ’90s because I wanted to be a picture book writer and illustrator. So, in some ways, it’s a return to how I originally pictured myself becoming a part of the children’s literature community. At the time my child was two and a half and I was inspired by what I was reading, and then when they were a little older, I was again inspired by what I was reading and I switched to novels. During the Covid lockdown when I found I couldn’t read novels well—I didn’t have the concentration–I turned to reading poetry, and I found so much comfort and inspiration in the poetry I was reading that it re-inspired me to look again at the picture book format.
I was reading the poem “October” by Louise Glück and the lines, “you are not alone,/ the poem said,/ in the dark tunnel,” popped out at me in such a powerful, personally resonant way. At the time, we were just coming out of the lockdowns. I was caring for my elderly mother, who had MS—I cared for her in her last three years of her life. It was a time when I think a lot of people were feeling isolated and alone, and those words just went straight to my heart. I sat down and thought, I am not the only one feeling this feeling. It’s not a new message by any means, but it’s such an important one, this “you are not alone.” It bears repeating in any and all formats.
My favorite part of You Are Not Alone is a few pages from the end; it’s a line tucked down into the lower right-hand corner of a page that says, “all of us thinking we are alone/ sometimes/ when we are not.” I wanted the young child who might be feeling insecure about going to bed at night to see that they are not even alone in feeling alone. We all think it, and we all—no matter how old we are—need to remember that we are not alone.
What were some of the pleasures and challenges of writing in a shorter format for younger readers? What was it like working with an illustrator?
The pleasures are the joy of being able to create something concise and compact and elegant in a very short amount of words that also then gets turned over to a fantastic illustrator for them to bring it to life. With the novels I wrote, I always considered the importance of the team around the projects—my editor and my agent and the person who did the covers and the whole team at Penguin behind the books creating the whole package that people then get. And with the picture book, there was this wonderful delight in creating a combination of words that then go into the hands of a very talented person to create the imagery around it and then the whole design team at Rocky Pond.
The challenge, of course, is that I’m a wordy person. I have had children say about my novels, “Oh, my teacher has to take a very deep breath before some of your sentences.” Also, I love advanced vocabulary, and so I had to try to keep my vocabulary simple and available to any age reader or listener.
I was given three names that the editor had in mind for people she thought she would love to work with as the illustrator of the book, and we were so fortunate that Xin Li was available and interested in the project. From my point of view, I feel that when the words are done, I don’t want to get in the mix too much. I think it’s really important not to have a micromanaging attitude about what the illustrator’s going to do, because they can bring things to the text that I could not even conceptualize. The only artistic note that I offered in the very beginning—before we chose an illustrator—was that I wanted there to be a sense of light in the darkness throughout the whole thing. So I wanted an illustrator who had a really good sense of light. How do we bring a sense of light into what might feel like a dark night? How do you feel you’re not alone in that darkness? Light is one of the ways we feel that.
Can you give any hints about your next project? Will you write more picture books after this?
I do have another picture book in the works. It comes out in 2027 with Rocky Pond and it’s called Before You Knew the Name for Stars. The illustrator is Brizida Magro. It’s another lyrical picture book: “before you knew the name for stars, they were here shining down on you.” You Are Not Alone goes from the child’s bedroom out into the house and out into the world. And Before You Knew the Name for Stars starts with the stars and the moon, comes down to Earth, and sings of a child’s belonging and place in the world. I find myself always coming back to a sense of assurance, comfort, seeing others and being seen. Belonging has always been an important theme that resurfaces in my work—a feeling like one has a place in the world even when feeling scared or anxious.
I love working with Rocky Pond, by the way. Lauri Hornik at Rocky Pond is actively trying to put books out in the world that help foster positive mental health and social emotional learning. Her mission with Rocky Pond is vital to the world and young people today, who are facing so much anxiety. I’m just honored to be a part of that.
How does working as a bookseller inform your writing?
I love working as a bookseller. Not only do I love being able to pair great books with great people throughout the day, but it’s really expanded the range of what I read. Whether I’m reading from the mystery section or the Western section or the self-help section or the history section or the young adult section, it’s this constant reigniting of my love of story and the way stories affect everybody who walks through the doors of the bookstore and beyond. It’s made me remember how important books are to people from all walks of life.
You Are Not Alone by Ingrid Law, illus. by Xin Li. Rocky Pond, $18.99 Aug. 26 ISBN 978-0-593-69795-5
