Why Savannah Guthrie Won't Be Reading Her Sister's Poetry to Baby Vale

Savannah Guthrie tells PEOPLE her poet sister helped get her through college

Photo: Heidi Gutman

No sibling rivalry for Savannah Guthrie.

The Today show co-anchor says her older sister, Annie Guthrie, “has always been my biggest cheerleader.” And on Thursday night, Savannah got to return the favor with a star-studded cocktail party celebrating the publication of The Good Dark, a collection of Annie’s poetry 15 years in the making.

The Today family turned out in force – Matt Lauer, Natalie Morales, Tamron Hall, Willie Geist and Megan Kopf Stackhouse – at Little Owl the Venue in New York City’s West Village.

Jon Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea, who are personal friends of Savannah and her husband Mike Feldman, also toasted Annie’s first book, along with Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Describing Annie, 45, as “deep as deep can be,” Savannah, 43, told the party, “I’m excited for the world to get a taste of the sister I know and grew up with in our little Brady Bunch family.”

Billed as “a dossier of contemplative exploration,” The Good Dark is no bedtime story for Savannah’s 14-month-old daughter, Vale.

“The book might be a little complicated for Vale right now, but when she’s 25, she may be ready,” Guthrie told PEOPLE.

“25?” asked Annie.

“What did you think?” countered Savannah.

“18. I found poetry in high school,” said Annie.

The sisters reminisced about life together after high school – at the University of Arizona.

“Annie was always writing, always so interesting and deep and thoughtful. In college, we would take some of the same classes – like a humanities course – and Annie would read the same book twice because she was so interested and devoted, and I would barely read it at all and then I would say, ‘Can you brief me on what happened in The Odyssey? Who was Odysseus?’ ”

Annie, laughing, added: “But then Savannah would get the A-plus on the test!”

With one toddler apiece, the sisters now also bond over motherhood. “Annie’s little boy is two and a half, so she teaches me the rules of the road,” said Savannah.

And Vale? Well, she’s just like her mom, said Annie. “When I see Vale and I see the back of her head with her little curls, it brings me back to being the older sister and loving all over my baby sister – reaching back through time and seeing my sister, the curls and the face. It’s so sweet.”

Added Savannah, “Now you see why she’s the poet and the writer.”