In 'Nobody Sits Alone,' a Northern Virginia Author Makes Kindness the Bravest Thing of All

On a sunny riverbank where a capybara named Paco loves to splash, a stranger turns up one quiet morning. He is tall, he is new, and he is terrified. Benny the giraffe stands off to the side with his bag still clutched in his arms, watching the other animals play, waiting for someone, anyone, to notice him.

Nobody does. "Nobody said 'Hi!'" the book tells us. "Nobody asked his name." Any child who has ever been the new kid at a lunch table knows that particular ache, and it is exactly the feeling Jordan Zebert set out to put on the page in his picture book Nobody Sits Alone. Zebert is a Northern Virginia children's author based in Bristow, and his story takes the smallest of social moments, the beat where you decide whether to walk over to someone who is alone, and treats it like the brave thing it is.

The book is subtitled A Story About Paco, Benny, and One Brave Step, and the step belongs to Paco. When a river otter named Otto swaggers up to the newcomer and tells him he is "funny and strange," Paco sees the whole thing and recognizes the sad, lonely sting from somewhere in his own memory. His tummy does flip-flops. His knees knock. And then he moves anyway. "He walked toward the new kid," the story says. "He walked toward kind."

What happens next is the quiet heart of the book. Paco plants himself between the bully and the newcomer with a line that doubles as its thesis: "Benny belongs here, and so do you." One by one, the other animals cross the clearing to stand beside them, not angry, just present. Otto, with no one left to frighten, simply runs out of mean things to say. It is a lesson about inclusion and about becoming the person who steps in rather than the one who looks away, and Zebert delivers it without a single lecture, in soft rhymes and warm, storybook art along a glittering river. A frog, a turtle, a parrot and a dapper, scarf-wearing snail round out the cast, the snail tucked into the corners as a reward for sharp-eyed readers.

Zebert's aim is a practical one. In a note to Washington DC Magazine, he wrote that he hopes the story helps children, families and educators "start conversations about belonging and the small actions that can make others feel welcome," and that he would welcome the chance to talk about the inspiration behind the book and "practical ways families and educators can encourage children to include others."

To that end, the final pages do real work. A spread called "Being Brave Looks Like This!" breaks the idea down to a child's scale: brave is saying hello to someone who is alone, brave is saying stop when something is not kind, brave is moving even when your knees are shaking, brave is telling a grown-up when a bully will not stop, and brave, the page insists, is simply you, just as you are. It all lands on a line that most grown-ups could stand to hear too: "Kindness is the bravest thing of all."

A "Let's Talk!" page then hands parents and teachers a set of ready-made questions for after the reading. How do you think Benny felt when nobody said hello? Have you ever seen someone standing alone, and what did you do? Can you say hello to someone new this week? A closing "Cool Capybara Facts" page adds a wink of nonfiction, pointing out that real capybaras are famous for getting along with nearly every other animal at the water's edge. Just like Paco.

It is a gentle book with a sturdy spine, the kind a teacher could keep by the reading rug for the first nervous week of a new school year. Nobody Sits Alone (ISBN 979-8905495380) is available now from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, with more about the book and its author at nobodysitsalonebook.com. Zebert says he is glad to talk with classrooms and families about the one brave step at its center.