Ann Patchett and Jenna Bush Hager Talk Book Bans: ‘People Are Banning Books They Don’t Even Read’

Mar. 15, 2025

Ann Patchett and Jenna Bush Hager.Photo:Shutterstock; Jamie McCarthy/Getty

Shutterstock; Jamie McCarthy/Getty

Ann Patchett in 2013.Jesse Dittmar for The Washington Post via Getty

Jesse Dittmar for The Washington Post via Getty

“My daughter loves Jenny Han, loves all of her books, and I do too,” Bush Hager said. “Mila loves them and reads them, devours them.”

“I posted a picture and it got some uproar,” Bush Hager added. “And I just thought, ‘Okay, so I can let my daughter read a book, in our home, and she can come to me with questions about what’s happening.'”

The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!Bush Hager also noted how books can be a way to connect with one another, as she did with her father, former PresidentGeorge W. Bush.

Jenna Bush Hager and her father George W. Bush in 2021.Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty

Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty

“I think what books do is they start conversations,” Bush Hager said. “They start conversations between parents and children. I got a text from my dad today, where he said, ‘I’m readingAll the Colors of the Dark. It’s very interesting.’ You know? And I love that.”“That’s how he reached out to me,” Bush Hager added. “That’s how we stay connected … I think that’s what we need more of, too, is talking and really listening.”

Patchett, whose new children’s book,The Verts: A Story of Introverts and Extroverts, came out in September, recalled how she was late to learn to read as a child, as her family was constantly moving.

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.“I was always showing up at a new school, not going to school as much as maybe I should have and then not being accountable,” Patchett said. “And so I really didn’t learn to read. And when people will say to me, ‘Why did you know that you wanted to be a writer when you were so young?’ Sometimes I think, ‘Was it just that I wanted to be able to write?’”

source: people.com