Jackie and the Mona Lisa

January 10, 2022
This narrative nonfiction tale spotlights Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis (1929–1994), her filling the White House with historically significant furniture to make “a living museum,” and efforts to inspire the public with art—particularly when she negotiated a 1963 loan of the Mona Lisa to museums in Washington, D.C., and New York City. Murphy narrates simply, with an attention to detail that will please young fact finders: “The Mona Lisa was placed in a bulletproof and waterproof container that could even float if the ship sank!” Bricking’s slender, thin-lined figures of varying ages, abilities, and skin tones, rendered in a cool palette, have a cartoonish bent in this straightforward, art-centered profile of a beloved first lady. Back matter includes more about Onassis and the Mona Lisa. Ages 7–8.