“When I received my ‘assignment,’ The White House First Residents,” writes Petra Mathers, “I was delighted by Jane Yolen’s poem ‘An Imagined Conversation Between John and Abigail Adams.’  It made me look forward to spending some time with this great couple. In preparation, I read The Letters of John and Abigail Adams (Penguin Classics) and realized how perfectly the poem captures the love and friendship between these two extraordinary people.

“Knowing from The Letters how often John and Abigail had to spend months on end apart, it was a special pleasure to be able to depict them here in one room together conversing rather than writing to each other.”

More Books by Petra Mathers

When Aunt Mattie Got Her Wings (Beach Lane Books)

Button Up! Wrinkled Rhymes by Alice Schertle (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

The McElderry Book of Mother Goose (Margaret K. McElderry Books)

The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders by Jack Prelutsky (HarperCollins)

Pierre in Love by Sara Pennypack (Scholastic Press)

Strange Mr. Satie by M. T. Anderson (Viking)

Frannie’s Fruits by Leslie Kimmelman (HarperCollins)

Grandmother Bryant’s Pocket (Houghton Mifflin)

Lottie’s New Beach Towel (Simon & Schuster)