I received this book as a gift years ago from my dearest friend, Sandy. This treasure trove of Jackie’s favorite poems was hand-picked by her daughter, Caroline Kennedy.

The book is divided into categories such as: young poems, patriotic poems, poems about love, adventure, escape, and reflection. Jackie was a huge lover of the arts and she shared that love with her children. As Caroline explains in one of the little introductions that she includes before each section (which are delightfully personal) Jackie had Caroline learn to recite “First Fig” and “Second Fig” by Edna St. Vincent Millay as a surprise for JFK, who was delighted. 

Jackie didn’t want gifts for birthdays or holidays. Instead, Jackie had Caroline and John-John write or choose a poem to recite. They had to copy it down and illustrate it, and Jackie pasted them in a special scrapbook, which Caroline still has.