White House Kids

It's a place where heads of state and kings and queens are invited for dinner, where the doors are open to the public for tours, and where the most powerful people in the world meet to determine the fate of the Earth. The White House is also home to the first family, and for nearly two hundred years its walls have reverberated with the laughter and shrieks of children who found fun and mischief in every nook and cranny. Tales of their outrageous adventures provide a candid glimpse of the times and the people who lived in the world's most illustrious house.

A couple of presidential children made the spacious East Room their personal roller skating rink, others brought their own menagerie of exotic pets to live in the White House, and children from the Lincolns to the Kennedys rode ponies on the lawn. Presidents have opened the doors of the White House for Christmas and birthday celebrations, the annual Easter egg roll, and parties for all kinds of children, grandchildren, and dozens of their friends. The daughters of Presidents Johnson and Nixon were even married in the White House.

Most important, the children who grew up in the White House each spent a few years at the center of American life. Here is a touching, amusing, and enlightening look at the human side of the families who are part of American history.