The Question After Morning Drop-Off That Sparked a Book

Every evening, the ritual repeats in millions of homes. A parent kneels down, looks a child in the eye, and asks the familiar question: "What did you do today?" Yet Sara Porritt noticed something rarely spoken aloud. While she knew nearly everything about her son's world, he knew very little about hers. That quiet imbalance became the heart of her first children's book.

The Realization Behind the Story

When Sara's son struggled with missing her during the day, she went looking for a book that would help. She did not want a story that simply promised she would come back. She wanted something more imaginative and more honest, a book that welcomed her child into the part of her life he could not see.

"I wasn't looking for a book that simply told my child I would come back," Sara recalls. "I wanted a book that invited him into the part of my life he couldn't see."

That subtle shift changed everything. Instead of focusing on the anxiety of being apart, she began to imagine time apart as a doorway. What if the hours after morning drop-off could become a source of wonder rather than worry? What if a child could picture, and eventually ask about, the unseen life of the adult who cared for them?

From that question, Where Do You Go When You're Not With Me was born.

Turning Unseen Time Into Imagination

Written for children ages 2 to 6 and the adults who love them, the book follows a child imagining the wonderfully unexpected things their mother might be doing after goodbye. In one scene, she leads an orchestra. In another, she sails away on a jellybean ship. The rhyming text, brought to life by illustrator Leonardo Azevedo, is playful and warm.

Beneath the fun sits a reassuring truth. When the child is thinking about their mother, their mother is thinking about them too. The story turns separation into reciprocal curiosity, the sense that both people carry each other through the day.

Sara has watched this idea take root in her own home. "I love how much this story has become a part of my own family's common language and routine," she says. "Now, whenever my son tells me that he misses me at school, I share with him a central idea from the book which reminds him that 'when you're thinking of me, I'm thinking of you.' It's amazing how he's now able to finish the line before I do."

The book does not treat time apart as a problem to solve. It treats it as something to imagine together.

A Working Parent's Perspective

Sara writes from lived experience. As a working mother and senior executive whose career has centered on inclusion, culture, and human connection, she understands the practical reality behind family life. Childcare was not an abstract choice. It was part of the infrastructure that allowed her to build both a meaningful career and a home.

She approaches that reality without guilt or apology. Working parents, traveling parents, and caregivers of every kind share the same daily rhythm of goodbye and reunion. The book speaks to all of them. Rather than centering the anxiety many families feel, it offers a way to talk about the hours in between.

As an Asian American woman raising biracial children, Sara also brings a perspective still not often centered in children's publishing. That perspective shapes the book naturally.

Books Worth Talking About

The larger story is not simply that Sara wrote a picture book. It is that she recognized an emotional and publishing white space, created the resource her own family needed, and built an independent press to carry that philosophy forward.

She founded Common Language Press as a founder-led independent imprint with a clear belief: stories can help people become more curious about lives beyond their own. Its tagline captures the mission plainly. These are "books worth talking about." Where Do You Go When You're Not With Me is its first title.

The press reflects Sara's conviction that curiosity about other people can begin inside the family. When a child wonders what a parent does all day, that small act of imagination is practice for a larger kind of empathy. It is the beginning of understanding that everyone carries a life you cannot fully see.

Keeping the Conversation Going

Sara designed the book to do more than entertain for a single reading. It includes a personal author's note, thoughtful conversation starters, and an "Our Day Together" activity that invites a child to learn about a caregiver's day and add a photo of their own.

"I didn't want the conversation to end when the book closed," she explains. "The author’s note, conversation starters, and activity are designed to help children and parents keep discovering and connecting with one another."

That intention runs through everything the press creates. Sara sees the final page not as a conclusion but as an invitation. The goal is to give families a shared language, a set of small rituals and questions they can return to long after the story is finished.

"The larger idea behind Common Language Press is simple," Sara says. "Create books worth talking about and give families meaningful ways to continue those conversations beyond the last page."

An Invitation to Families and Caregivers

For parents, grandparents, teachers, and caregivers looking for a story that does more than fill a bedtime slot, Where Do You Go When You're Not With Me offers a rare gift. It turns the ordinary moment of goodbye into a spark for imagination, curiosity, and connection. It helps children see the adults who love them as whole people with days of their own. And it gives families a warm, playful way to keep talking.

Discover the book, meet its imaginative world, and learn more about the mission behind Common Language Press. Explore how one simple question after drop-off can open a lifetime of richer conversations at home. Your family's next favorite story, and your next favorite conversation, may be waiting on the very first page. Connect with Common Language Press, find the book on Amazon, visit Sara Porritt, and follow along on Instagram.