Sisters First

by Jenna Bush Hager, Barbara Pierce Bush, Ramona Kaulitzki (Illustrator)

Overview

A lovely, lyrical ode to the magic of sisterhood by beloved former first daughters and bestselling authors Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush.


A young girl's wish is granted when a new sister arrives. While the baby can't do much, over time the big and little siblings become inseparable, playing and dancing, imagining and laughing. By each other's sides, they are smarter, kinder, and braver than they ever thought they could be. And they are forever sisters first.


This exquisite celebration of the bond between sisters is inspired by the spirited childhood of Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush, authors of the #1 New York Times bestseller Sisters First: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316534789
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	11/12/2019
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	18,891
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jenna Bush Hager is a host of NBC's Today Show and an editor-at-large for Southern Living magazine. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope, and she co-authored the #1 New York Times bestseller Sisters First: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life with her twin sister, as well as the children's books Our Great Big Backyard and Read All About It! with her mother, former First Lady Laura Bush. Jenna lives in New York.
 
Barbara Pierce Bush is the board chair and co-founder of Global Health Corps, an organization that has mobilized more than one thousand young leaders who take an innovative approach to solving some of the world's biggest global health challenges. She is the co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Sisters First: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life with her twin sister, and the picture book Sisters First is her debut work for children. Barbara is currently pursuing her master's degree at Harvard University.
  Ramona Kaulitzki's biggest passions have always been drawing and storytelling. She enjoys creating characters and breathing life into them while imagining the worlds in which they live, and her love of animals and nature is a major inspiration for her work. You can visit her online at ramonakaulitzkiart.com.

Editorial Reviews

11/04/2019

Hager and Bush follow up their 2017 memoir, Sisters First: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life, with this heartfelt picture book tribute to sisterhood—both literal and figurative. “As we’ve grown older, our definition of ‘sisters’ has expanded to friends and colleagues—women who lift us up and help us believe that we are enough,” they write in an introductory note. As the story opens, a lonely girl eagerly awaits the birth of a sibling: “My wishing paid off;/ it was written in the stars;/ A new baby sister would/ soon be ours.” Reality sets in, though, once the infant arrives: “You cried and you ate, but not much more./ (My new baby sister was a bit of a snore).” As the baby matures, the two become inseparable, yet, in keeping with the authors’ message about the expansive nature of sisterhood, they also spend time cavorting with a diverse cluster of other girls. Kaulitzki (Badger’s Perfect Garden) crafts breezy, luminous mixed-media illustrations that capture the sisters’ mutual affection and playful flights of imagination. Though the verse’s rhythm and rhyme are sometimes strained, the story’s genuine sentiment shines through brightly. Ages 5–8. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

2019 ABC Best Books for Young Readers

"[A] heartfelt picture book tribute to sisterhood—both literal and figurative."—Publishers Weekly

Praise for Sisters First: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life:* "In this funny and heartfelt memoir, the twin daughters of President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush offer their perspective on growing up in the public eye.... Readers will be entertained by this charming, wild, and wonderful pair of life stories."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

"This illuminating work from the daughters of one of America's most well-known families offers a satisfying behind-the-scenes look into the personal side of politics."—Library Journal

"An enjoyably nostalgic scrapbook stocked full of memories from twins born into a political dynasty."—Kirkus Reviews

"The two first daughters emerge as surprisingly well-adjusted, intelligent young women with strong family bonds in this insightful look at life inside the White House."—Booklist

From the Publisher

2019-09-29
A paean to sisterhood by the former first daughters.

Although the co-authors are twins, their rhyming, first-person text is in the voice of a girl praying for a baby sister: "Please make her kind, with an enormous heart, / clever too, and very smart." Her wishes are prompted by her observations of other sisters, whom the accompanying cartoon art depicts as diverse pairs of girls, including two brown-skinned children with wavy brown hair and a white-appearing girl holding the hand of a small child who appears black, with dark skin and afro-puffs. The narrator is blonde with light skin, and her sister is born with a similar complexion but reddish-brown hair. The big sister is chagrined to realize that having a baby sister isn't all she'd expected, but frustration abates when she reflects on her earlier prayer and thinks, "If kindness was what I was asking of you, / I needed to be kind and patient, too." As the baby grows, the sisters achieve the loving, close bond the narrator prayed for. While the core sentiment might well move readers, the bland art stops short of expanding or enriching the text, and the writing both falters in cadence and descends into cliché, as in lines reading "And with time…we found a rhythm, your hand locked in mine. / We sang duets and danced in rain and sunshine."

Not a first pick. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews