Between the Chapters: Meet Sara

You know those people who say exactly what they think and sound smart at the same time? Sara Sedgwick Brown is one of those people. I first met Sara through my college friend who lived down the street from her in Newton. My college friend continually mentioned “this awesome neighbor” and often tried to get us together. At the time, Sara worked at Google full-time and we both had three young kids. It would be years later until we would eventually meet at my college friend’s birthday party—of all places, it was at a sound bath studio (is ‘studio’ even the right word for it?) on the second floor of a house in Belmont. While we didn’t get a chance to really connect at this event, I had heard that Sara would soon be leaving the corporate world and starting a new venture.

Sara worked at Google for twelve years and left to start ‘The Mothers’ podcast, which is a platform to celebrate and explore the human experience of the extraordinary leaders, creators and thinkers that shape our world and happen to be raising the next generation as well. Think ‘Diary of a CEO’ or ‘How I Built This’ except every guest is a badass mama. I had a chance to see one of Sara’s live podcasts this summer in Nantucket wherein she interviewed author Elin Hildebrand, author and owner of Barnaby Bear, Wendy Rouillard, and CEO of Nantucket Looms, Bess Clarke. These interviews were right on brand for ‘The Mothers’ platform—all three of these women are badass mamas.

Once you see or listen to one of Sara’s episodes of ‘The Mothers,’ you will see that she has a real point of view and isn’t afraid to voice it. This, and the fact that she is also mom to three young readers, are two reasons that made me even more excited to ask her these literacy questions and to get her unadulterated point of view.

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What book are your kids living right now?

Our oldest (fifth grade) loves the Dog Man series, Cat Kid Comic Club series, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, 13-Story Tree house series.

Our middle (3rd grade girl) is into House at the Edge of Magic series, The Magic Tree House, Dork Diaries (though I have mixed feelings about them!), the Raina Telgemeier collection (Smile, Sister, Guts, Drama). She also just discovered The Squad which -- again -- I feel mixed about...

Our youngest ( PreK) enjoys the Magic School Bus, Arthur, George & Martha, The Cool Bean (LOVE THIS BOOK), Sometimes I Kaploom (ALSO LOVE), and Grumpy Monkey. Mo Willems is big over here too. The Kissing Hand came up big for our youngest when she went through a phase of being sad at preschool drop-off.

What books do you like to read aloud to your kids?

 Books by David Sedaris! Reading all of them. I think Me Talk Pretty One Day or When You Are Engulfed In Flames is where it started. My husband reads it to our oldest. He has a great sense of humor (imo) and an adult sensibility. We skip over truly independent parts, but otherwise it’s the best to hear them just dying laughing together at bedtime. The joy of reading is that it can also be shared :)

What books did you like growing up? 

I loved Roald Dahl – all of them, but especially George’s Marvelous Medicine because it made me laugh the most. Also, I weirdly was into the My Babysitter is a Vampire series. Idk what that says about me. The Little House on the Prairie series was also meaningful to me (my parents read it to me), Ramona too. And Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s me, Margaret. I later really loved A Separate Peace in high school. I think I connected to the injured character, as I was dealing with my own injury around that time. I was also really moved (maybe permanently) by Emerson’s “Self Reliance.” I quoted, “The great man is he who in the midst of a crowd…” it to my now-husband when we first met in a bar. Thankfully, he knew the words too :)

What book are you reading right now? 

I just finished The Correspondent and HOLY SHT I loved it and will never be the same. I just picked up Martha Beck’s Beyond Anxiety, which is not exactly what it sounds like. It’s more about noticing what society does to both create anxiety and then label anxiety as bad and how we can actually reframe it as a partner in a creative journey to finding out who we are and what we really want to do.

What is your nightly reading routine?

We do bath, books, bed. The one hard part is that with 3 kids, someone often gets left out of getting read to (or hearing a book they actually like). We try to rotate but it’s not perfect (and our oldest wants alone time reading something that our middle doesn’t really like). But we do our best… Typically 15-20 mins of reading to each kid, either 1:1 or 1:2 (my husband and I divide and conquer). This is when reading out loud to our kids most often happens. Our kids also periodically gravitate to books during the day or weekends. For our oldest, reading is a helpful reset for him if he gets overwhelmed.

What activities do you do to be selfish or self-indulge? 

I don’t agree with the framing of selfish or self-indulgent. But the things I do “for me” that aren’t “classically productive” that make me feel good are: drinks with my husband, massage, pedicure. My husband and I also end most nights watching a show and honestly it’s the best when there’s a good one we both are into and we can turn off our brains.

What are some things you do to make your life easier? 

Invest in childcare and a housekeeper who does our laundry.

In terms of reading, what else are you wondering about?

Just great book recommendations! I also am generally curious about POVs on graphic novels vs. “real books.” My older kids are really drawn to graphic novels and most of me thinks that “reading is reading” and they’ll eventually move on to other things, but I was just curious how an expert thinks about what role graphic novels play in a reading journey. I definitely went through a comic book phase in late elementary school (I think Tin Tin) and also got into Where the Sidewalk Ends.

Also, any ideas for books “for girls” that aren’t about stupid drama and relationship cattiness? I read some of the books that my daughter (age 9) seems to enjoy and feel like we are CREATING the problem, not helping girls just navigate the world and learn who they are.

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Sara brings up so many good points—not just around literacy but around the intersection of literacy and society. Are the recent prevalence of graphic novels a net positive in that they keep kids reading or rather a net negative that perpetuates a a shorter attention span and prevents kids from visualizing on their own and engaging more deeply with text? And why do books geared towards young girls have to be so saturated with some of the worst parts of female relationships instead of the best? Can’t authors be more creative and draw up drama elsewhere or is this just what sells? I don’t have all the answers to these questions, but I do know that by considering these questions in the first place, and discussing together, we are better for it. I’m sure glad that my college friend lived down the street from Sara and that we’ve had a chance to connect several times since the sound bath.

I enjoyed Sara’s responses and perspectives, and I’m still enjoying them as I digest some of the deeper questions. I love the nature of these  interviews and of the children’s literacy topic itself. You can take with you practical tips or form your own opinions around some of the ideas discussed. Whether big or small, I hope this conversation has helped to contribute to your thoughts on literacy and the ways each of us choose to raise our children. If we agree or disagree, we nonetheless have put a thought out there from which you can  react. This starts a conversation whether in your own mind or with others, and for that reason, we are better together.