What I Learned About My Adult Self by Rereading My Childhood Favorites
A look back at old stories through new eyes
As a kid growing up in suburban Pennsylvania in the ’90s, I lived for Silent Sustained Reading, or SSR, that point in the school day when the teacher asked us to clear our desks of everything but a book. This was typically also the point when kids tended to become a little rowdy, but I got smug satisfaction in staying out of whatever trouble was brewing. I loved being the nerd in the front row of the classroom, burning through chapters, wearing the glasses I had desperately wanted but didn’t really need.
Even after I grew up and left SSR behind, I continued to love that image of myself. But as I got further into adulthood, I realized just how much I didn’t understand about the books I had read as a kid. I spent my first five post-college years working in the children’s division of a major book publisher, and there’s nothing quite like discussing Dr. Seuss and The Giver in weekly sales meetings to change your perspective on what those stories really mean. So when I decided earlier this year that I wanted to start a podcast, I knew almost immediately what I wanted it to be: a look back at all those old favorites, this time through older, wiser eyes. (In an homage to my beloved SSR, it’s called The SSR Podcast, this time standing…
