Alumni authors Ann and Ben Brashares share stories of their lives and how they write books together.

Ann Brashares ‘85 and Ben Brashares ‘92 credit their careers and their imaginations as writers to what they call their “weird” upbringing. Invited to speak at a Middle School assembly on September 26, they recounted how, following their parents’ divorce, they split their time between households that both allowed them an unusual amount of freedom. Take the pets they kept, for example. Among others, they had a toothy piranha, a corn snake that lived in the sofa, and a tarantula named Frederica who roamed the house freely, emerging only when she felt so inclined. They also had a gerbil, beady-eyed and curious.

The gerbil, as it turns out, is the catalyst for their Westfallen trilogy, an action-packed middle-grade alternate history thriller that asks what it would be like to wake up in present-day America if Germany had won World War II. The second volume of the trilogy, Into the Fire, was published this month.

At the Middle School assembly, the siblings talked about their lives and how they became writers and then co-writers.

Ann, best known for her book, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, recounted that she has always been a voracious reader and, after majoring in philosophy in college then working in publishing, she decided to stop editing other people’s books and write her own. “I’ve always loved stories; they are how our brains work after all,” she said. She recalled one Sidwell teacher who brought history alive through her great storytelling and the many artifacts in her classroom, which included a mummified foot. When asked for advice about becoming a writer, she said, “Be ambitious with your imagination! There is huge joy in sharing non-existent, imagined worlds.”

Ben said he always struggled in school, especially as a reader. He had fond memories of playing lacrosse at Sidwell Friends and says that some of his best friends are from his school days. “I was a real ‘80s kid, growing up more on TV and movies than books. I loved Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Michael Jackson, and Prince. It wasn’t until college that I discovered my love of reading.” After working as an editor at Rolling Stone and a few other publications, Ben started writing his own children’s books after he had his own children. “My son and I share a love for bugs,” he said. “That inspired The Great Whipplethorp Bug Collection.”

Later, when Ann and Ben both had boys in middle school, they started talking about collaborating on a book together—something that would interest their boys. “We started brainstorming themes and ideas we might like in our book—friendship, time travel, aliens, Nazis …” said Ann.

And from that first brainstorm, the trilogy was born.