Mathers, Petra Books

Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children About Their Art

Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A must for young and old 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I love this book. I had gotten it with my children in mind but being an artist myself, found great joy in reading it.

Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children About Their Art 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

i thought this book was going to be good, but i didn't know it would be this good. each well-known childrens' book writer/illustrator writes about their lives, influences and inspirations.

included are ealry photos, first drawings and a full page self-portrait.

so thoughtfully put together. a beautiful book to browse through and inspire you and your children to pick up a tool and draw, paint and create.

Editorial Review:

In this remarkable and beautiful anthology featuring the likes of Maurice Sendak, Robert Sabuda, Rosemary Wells, and Eric Carle, twenty-three of the most honored and beloved artists in children’s literature talk informally to children—sharing secrets about their art and how they began their adventures into illustration. Fold-out pages featuring photographs of their early work, their studios and materials, as well as sketches and finished art create an exuberant feast for the eye that will attract both children and adults.

Self-portraits of each illustrator crown this important anthology that celebrates the artists and the art of the picture book. An event book for the ages.

Proceeds from the book will benefit the Eric Carle

The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders

Jack Prelutsky

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Playful poet Jack Prelutsky and the beloved Petra Mathers (Lottie's New Beach Towel) take youngsters from the heart of South Dakota to Monterey Bay in this extraordinary collection of poems and paintings that belongs on the shelf next to Ride a Purple Pelican and Beneath a Blue Umbrella. As ever, Prelutsky's meter is flawless, and you absolutely read his poems aloud, even if you're sitting in a room by yourself. This is not the gross-out fare that Prelutsky so delightfully dishes out in Awful Ogre's Awful Day and some of his other books. Here are 28 nonsensical, often somewhat geographical poems for preschoolers and early readers about a tiny baker who bakes a tiny cookie, a granny who lost her footing and fell into pudding, elephants who sit in trees and sneeze, and a small hen who is stuck at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. With the lightest touch, Petra Mathers adds new dimensions and quirky subplots to every poem in endearing two-pages-per-poem watercolor paintings. Young readers will adore this colorful collection of quiet surprises by two of our favorite creators of children's books. (Ages 2 to 6) --Karin Snelson

Borreguita and the Coyote (Reading Rainbow Books)

Verna Aardema

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Borreguita and the Coyote 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I so wanted my children to like this book. The artwork is attractive and I like to expose them to literature from other cultures, but they just did not take to it.

Although the story is fresh and has its amusing side, my son would just wonder away and no one (either the 3 y.o. nor the 5 y.o.) asked for it to be read again, even after multiple readings. (I don't assume that they will take to a book the first time.) Further, my daughter, who is the sensitive sort, was bothered by the fact that the coyote wanted to eat poor little borreguita.

We love "Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain" by Verna Aardema but that book has more of a rhythmic cadence that this book lacks and perhaps that is why it was not a hit in my house.

That said, you can see from the other reviews that other children loved it. And it is not that this is not a good book, but if your children are like mine you just might want to try it out at the library first.

Editorial Review:

What's a little lamb to do about a fierce coyote that wants to eat her? Why, trick him, of course...and and trick him again...and trick him one more time! Here's a lively retelling of a Mexican folk tale by master story teller Verna Aardema, illustrated in bold, winning colors by Petra Mathers.

In Aunt Giraffe's Green Garden

Jack Prelutsky

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Bella's response 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I gave this book to a very bright 3 year old. She fell in love with it and insisted that it be read to her daily. Through this book she will begin the process of learning to read, as well as learning geography. Right on, Prelutsky!

Original and fun 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I picked this up at our library because it looked interesting. My almost 2y/o is a little too wiggly to sit still for this, but I love the fun and funky poems and beautiful illustrations for each. I may get this for myself and just hope that my son learns to love it too!

Love this book! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

My daughter has loved this book since she was about 18-months-old. The prose is wonderful, and the illustrations really serve to hold my daughter's interest -- I point out, or she asks about, all the detail in all the pictures. She's now 2 years 4 months and still loves it, and also loves the other books by Jack Prelutsky that I have subsequently bought her.

Editorial Review:

So much to see! So much to do! Open this book, and you can . . . smell the tall flowers in Aunt Giraffe's garden, sip juice with a big blue goose, eat oodles of noodles with some poodles, chirp a cheery song with a little bluebird, fish in a frosty pond, and much, much more!

With Jack Prelutsky's twenty-eight hilarious poems and Petra Mathers's brilliant, beautiful paintings, this classic collection for the youngest child is filled to the brim with smiles and silliness.

Lottie's New Beach Towel (Lottie's World)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

One beautiful summer day Lottie, a chicken, is squeezing lemons when a package arrives. It's a red-and-white polka-dotted beach towel from her Aunt Mattie with a note that says, "This might come in handy this summer." Boy, does it! Young readers will revel in the simple story of a day at the beach with absurd little twists. Lottie's friend Herbie is a duck, has a boat, and wears a hat labeled "Capitano." When he picks her up from the shore for a boat ride and the motor "gets tired and goes to sleep," they sail back with the help of the beach towel, of course. Petra Mathers, creator of Borreguita and the Coyote and Grandmother Bryant's Pocket, not only exposes the indispensable nature of one humble beach towel, she also creates a quirky story of friendship and a funny take on how one thing leads to another. In Lottie's closing letter to her aunt, she writes, "Thank you so much for my new beach towel. Without it I might be in the hospital with burnt feet or lost at sea with Herbie. There might not even have been a wedding. But let me start at the beginning." Charming illustrations and an elegant, sunny design are bound to make this winning picture book a story-time favorite. (Ages 4 to 8) --Karin Snelson

The Miraculous Tale of the Two Maries

Rosemary Wells

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great story of heroines 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I took this book out of the library. The illustration is beautiful and the story is captivating. It is the behind the scenes story of two saints told in a simple way that kids can easily understand. It reads like an adventure book. One small quibble is that because of the death component I'd wait until age 6 unless the kid has experienced death.

Editorial Review:

In the south of France there is a tiny town called Saintes Maries de la Mer. Inside the town church is a wooden boat . . . with two wooden ladies—one in a rose dress and one in blue. Both are called Marie.

Traveling in their modest wooden boat, the mysterious two Saint Maries are said to have performed forty miracles during the 19th century. But who were these two saints? Inspired by this question, Rosemary Wells crafts a vivid portrayal of the saints as sixteen-year-old friends drifting through the skies in their boat, meeting with God himself, and swooping down to Earth to perform loving good deeds. Award-winning illustrator Petra Mathers’ whimsical illustrations top off this enchantingly unique picture book.

Lottie's New Friend (Lottie's World)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Funny, warm, loving look at friendship! 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I love this world, of Lottie, Herbie, and now Dodo that Petra Mathers has created.You'll laugh but most of all you'll recognize yourself--because who hasn't ever felt like a fifth wheel at one time or another? The art is fresh, and filled with wonderful details of this seaside town--which is so cozy that it makes me want to buy a house there right next to Lottie! And look out for perhaps the funniest line you've EVER seen on a flap!( I won't ruin it by telling you). I am crazy about this book AND the series and I know kids and the adults that read it to kids will be too!!

Editorial Review:

As Herbie strolls over to his best friend Lottie's house, he's looking forward to some nice, warm cookies and a pleasant chat. But it appears Lottie has found someone else to share her cookies with--a certain "Dodo" from Germany, who once had a part in the movies. Poor Herbie feels left out, until Lottie leaves town, the exotic Dodo is caught in a precarious position, and Herbie is the only one who can help her. Gallantly, Herbie rescues Dodo off a rooftop, and Dodo kindly reciprocates with some reassuring words: "Now I know why Lottie says . . . zat you are ze apple of her eye".

Strange Mr. Satie (Bccb Blue Ribbon Nonfiction Book Award (Awards))

M.T. Anderson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

This is an excellent book 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This is an excellent book. My son wondered why Mr. Satie was referred to as "strange," and his question was soon answered. M.T. Anderson gives some amusing anecdotes about this composer who was relatively unknown and quite poor during his lifetime. One example is that Mr. Satie did not take baths, but rather rubbed himself with a stone to get clean. How clean we wondered? The book creates an interest to hear Satie's music and is educational.

Editorial Review:

In Paris, at the turn of the twentieth century, when artists were experimenting with new ways of seeing things, Erik Satie had something new to say about music. Most people didn't understand his pieces; critics called his music surreal. But Erik Satie didn't care. He wanted to make music that followed no rules but its own. Satie's life was strange and wonderful, frenetic and lonely all at the same time. He was friends with Picasso, and with wizards and puppeteers; he scraped himself with a stone instead of bathing, and he once threw his acrobat girlfriend out a window. Now award-winning author M. T. Anderson tells the story of the irreverent French composer in a biography that is witty, accessible, and endlessly surprising, while Petra Mathers' fanciful illustrations capture all the vibrancy that was Erik Satie's topsy-turvy world.

Illustrations by Petra Mathers.

A Cake for Herbie

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In Lottie's New Beach Towel and Lottie's New Friend, Petra Mathers evokes the spirit of James Marshall's hippos George and Martha, celebrating the quiet joys of the friendship between Lottie the chicken and Herbie the duck with a feather-light touch.

In A Cake for Herbie, Herbie (the star of the third Herbie and Lottie book) decides to enter a poetry contest in which the winner literally takes the cake. Despite the fact that he stays up all night concocting poems about food from A to Z ("Artie chews, / Artie swallows, / Artichokes"), he is booed off the stage on the big night. This is especially "K ... for kruel" because Lottie is quite greenly sick and not there to comfort him. But all is not lost. Herbie, forlorn in the back alley, is soon ushered into a bustling restaurant kitchen where he and his delicious doggerel are welcomed by sweaty Betty (offering spaghetti) and a host of other shamelessly rhyming birds of a feather.

Herbie's new friends bake him a cake after all, and he can't wait to tell... Lottie! He zooms home along the now seemingly endless road, arriving with a mostly eaten cake and a story to share while she knits on the couch. Mathers's neatly boxed, crisply composed, colorful paintings each communicate a small story-within-a-story, richly deserving the close study of voracious young bookworms. If you haven't yet discovered this artist's sweet, funny world, now's the time to be introduced. (Ages 4 to 8) --Karin Snelson

When Mommy Was Mad

Lynne Jonell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Is Mommy Mad..... 5 out of 5 stars.
21 of 22 people found this review helpful.

"Something was wrong with Mommy. She burned the toast. She banged the pots and pans. And she forgot to kiss Daddy good-bye..." Little Robbie and his brother Christopher are worried. Why is Mommy mad? Is it something they did wrong? They can't think of anything they've done to put Mommy in such a bad mood. Maybe she's mad at Daddy. Robbie wants a story and a snuggle and a smile, "but Mommy did not look very soft. Mommy looked prickly. All over" This starts to make Robbie feel cranky, too. Eventually, he finds a way to get Mommy's attention, and out of this prickly situation comes a simple and heartwarming solution to a bad mood..... Lynne Jonell's easy to read text really captures the discomfort little ones feel when they don't understand an adult's sudden mood change. Petra Mathers' childlike illustrations, with their marvelous facial expressions, complement the story with engaging stick-figure artwork, in colorful crayon. Perfect for preschoolers, When Mommy Was Mad should open interesting discussions about bad moods, emotions, and the feelings we all have from time to time and how to cope.

Editorial Review:

Something was wrong with Mommy. She burned the toast. She banged the pots and pans. And she didn't kiss Daddy good-bye. Robbie wonders if she is mad at him, but Christopher doesn't think so. The boys can't think of anything they've done wrong, and although Robbie tries and tries, he can't make Mommy smile again.

Illustrated by Petra Mathers