A Family of Poems collected by Caroline Kennedy, Illustrated by Jon J Muth

A Family of Poems collected by Caroline Kennedy, Illustrated by Jon J Muth was published in 2005 and included Kennedy's favorite poetry for children.

This book is separated into sections and contains poetry by many of the masters. The sections are: About Me, That's so Silly, Animals, The Seasons, The Seashore, Adventure, and Bedtime. There is a poem for most occasions. I was pleased with the diversity of authors and poems.

The illustrations are watercolor paintings by Jon J Muth and are absolutely beautiful.

Favorite lines:
"The bud
stands for all things,
even for those things that don't flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing:"
      ~From Saint Francis and the Sow by Galway Kinnell

"A boy told me
if he roller-skated fast enough
his loneliness couldn't catch up to him,

the best reason I ever heard
for trying to be a champion."
     ~From The Rider by Naomi Shihab Nye

"In winter I get up at night
and dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day."
     ~From Bed in Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson

This book contains 136 pages of poetry for children with beautiful art.

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.