Jenna Bush Hager Shares the Sweet Moment Her Daughter Mila Met Judy Blume: 'How Amazing Is That?’ (Exclusive) (original) (raw)

Jenna Bush Hager's daughter got to meet best-selling author Judy Blume — and she had the sweetest reaction.

Speaking to PEOPLE at the Creator Book Club with Jenna Bush Hager and Coco Mellors event hosted by Threads at McNally Jackson Books Rockefeller Center in New York, on Wednesday, Sept. 25, the mom of three, 42, recounted the time her older daughter Mila, 11, got to speak with Blume. Bush Hager shares her three kids — Mila, Poppy, 9, and Hal, 5 — with husband Henry Hager.

At the event, Bush Hager spoke with Mellors about her new novel Blue Sisters, which is the Today with Hoda & Jenna co-host's September pick for her Read with Jenna book club.

"I get to work with Judy Blume. We're doing the adaption of her book Summer Sisters, which is amazing. It's her adult book," Bush Hager tells PEOPLE at the event, which was also in collaboration with BookThreads, a community of readers on the social app. "But I was on a Zoom with her to talk about it, and Mila came in, my daughter who's 11."

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"I was like, 'Mila, this is Judy Blume.' And she was like, 'You wrote the first chapter book I ever read,' " the proud mom remembers. "And I loved that because I felt like, 'How amazing is that?' "

Bush Hager went on to say that her daughter has became a voracious reader, picking up titles all across children's literature and young adult books.

"She's fallen in love with all of Jenny Han, devoured it all. She read The Hunger Games, she read all the Harry Potters. So I think it's about helping her keep discovering what's new," Bush Hager continues. "And the school she goes to does a really good job of reading books from all over the world, which I think is really cool."

"Because literature is a way to travel to places we may not get to go to, and a way to create empathy and compassion through conversation, which I think is so cool."

In March, Bush Hager shared a sweet photo on her Instagram Stories of her daughter Mila enjoying a good read while hanging out with a friend in beach chairs on the sand.

Both girls were reading Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty, which was adapted into an Amazon Prime series.

The mom of three shared what her two daughters had been reading lately in November 2023 as she chatted with PEOPLE for a special event at P.S. 108K The Sal Abbracciamento School in Brooklyn, to unveil its first Little Yellow Library.

"Mila is reading a lot of chapter books. She read a book called Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks and she loved it. She's really into those books that are sort of driving home empathy. She likes to feel when she reads, which is something I also really like. So I'm just trying to help guide her to books that are like that," she told PEOPLE at the time.

As for Poppy, "she's just started reading chapter books and graphic novels on her own, so she's reading through the whole Baby-Sitter's Club graphic novel series,” she explained.

“They're so good because they take a series that we were obsessed with growing up and updated it a little bit and made it more manageable to get into as an earlier reader."

When it comes to her little guy, Hal, Bush Hager said he loves to read with her but doesn’t always make it easy.

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"He plays this really fun game, because he knows I love the books that are basically about how much a mom loves their child, the sweet ones that are more for parents than they are for kids. So he's always like, 'Guess what we're gonna read tonight, Mommy?' And then he'll pick and it sort of depends on his mood, if he wants to terrorize me or not," she laughed.

"Sometimes he's like, 'We're gonna read On the Night You Were Born, Mommy!' and then sometimes he'll sort of dangle it over me and then say, 'Not tonight, Mommy!' which is hilarious and it works every time."

Bush Hager's new podcast, Open Book with Jenna, launches on Thursday, Oct. 3.