Background
Petra Mathers was born in 1945 in Todtmoos, Germany during the last year of World War II and immigrated to the United States as a young woman.
1991
Petra Mathers, 1991.
Petra Mathers
(The chicken of the title belongs to Signora Rinaldo, a Ne...)
The chicken of the title belongs to Signora Rinaldo, a New York City apartment-dweller who loves opera. She keeps a chicken coop on her rooftop for fresh breakfast eggs and is devastated when the door is left open one day and Maria Theresa escapes. The hen makes it to the subway by hiding out in someone’s shopping bag and finds herself in an utterly new world - the countryside. She comes across a circus and finds it all so fantastical that she believes it must be the opera she has long dreamed of, but never seen. The circus hires her to perform with Miss Lola, an egg juggler who rides aboard the cow Esmeralda.
https://www.amazon.com/Maria-Theresa-Petra-Mathers/dp/0060241098/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Maria+Theresa+Petra+Mathers&qid=1585724815&sr=8-1
1985
(The title characters are a dog and its owner. Theodor is ...)
The title characters are a dog and its owner. Theodor is Mr. Balbini’s life, but their relationship changes when the dog suddenly gains the power of speech. The talking Theodor is fully able to articulate his demands and begins to complain about all manner of things to his owner. Mr. Balbini is disconcerted by the remarkable development, but when Theodor decides to learn French, Mr. Balbini finds a teacher, Madame Poulet. She finds her new pupil fascinating. Soon, Theodor has moved in with her, and leaves Mr. Balbini lonely in his home. He wishes for Theodor to return, but return all the way, the way he was before he talked.
https://www.amazon.com/Theodor-Mr-Balbini-Petra-Mathers/dp/0060241225/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Theodor+and+Mr.+Balbini&qid=1585725021&sr=8-1
1988
(The plot follows the development of Sophie, a painfully s...)
The plot follows the development of Sophie, a painfully shy mouse, into a far more confident, outgoing figure. When a dance studio opens across the street, Sophie is fascinated by it. She is too timid to enroll in classes, but when she opens her window, she can hear the music and instructors’ voices. After pushing her furniture against the walls, she practices along with the class in her own living room. One evening, the doorbell rings, and Lou, another mouse, asks her for a dance; they waltz off together. “Astute readers will notice that Lou appears throughout the illustrations as a bashful observer to Sophie’s transformation,” wrote Denise Anton Wright in a review for School Library Journal.
https://www.amazon.com/Sophie-Lou-Petra-Mathers/dp/0689844751/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Sophie+and+Lou&qid=1585725794&sr=8-1
1991
(In ''Victor and Christabel'' Mathers’s heroes are two cro...)
In ''Victor and Christabel'' Mathers’s heroes are two crocodiles. Victor is a museum guard devoted to his job, but who becomes particularly enchanted when a new work, “Cousin Christabel on Her Sickbed,” arrives in his wing. It depicts a frail but still lovely crocodile, an image that emanates a deep sadness. Victor begins to bring the painting flowers and even installs a little night-light to keep it company during his off-duty hours. Then, it seems “Christabel” begins to improve, and it emerges that she was once free, but imprisoned in two dimensions by her evil, magic-practicing relative.
https://www.amazon.com/VICTOR-CHRISTABEL-Petra-Mathers/dp/067983060X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Victor+and+Christabel&qid=1585725875&sr=8-1
1993
(Set in Germany in the years just after World War II, the ...)
Set in Germany in the years just after World War II, the tale revolves around Rosa and her family, who struggle to make ends meet. When her mother is hospitalized with tuberculosis, Rosa is sent to stay with relatives on a farm in the Black Forest area. It is a difficult adjustment, and Rosa misses her mother terribly at first. The rhythm of life in the country soon begins to grow on her, and when it is time to leave her aunt and cousin and return home, Rosa is sad to leave her new friends. A Publishers Weekly critic found that “as a writer, Mathers sets a leisurely pace for the story, lingering lovingly on the small details.”
https://www.amazon.com/Kisses-German-Parents-Choice-Illustration/dp/0679826866/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Kisses+from+Rosa.&qid=1585726456&sr=8-1
1995
(Lottie, a chicken, and her best friend Herbie, a duck, pl...)
Lottie, a chicken, and her best friend Herbie, a duck, plan a picnic outing at the beach. Her aunt sends her a lovely new beach towel that same day and the gift proves to have a number of practical and surprise purposes; she uses it to protect her feet from the hot sand, makes a sail from it when Herbie’s boat stalls, and loans it to a bride whose veil is swept away by a strong breeze. The tale concludes with Lottie writing a thank-you note to her aunt. “Mathers paints a portrait of a win-some heroine characterized by unflagging practical resourcefulness and bursts of romantic inspiration,” declared a Publishers Weekly contributor.
https://www.amazon.com/Lotties-New-Beach-Towel-World/dp/0689844417/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Lottie%E2%80%99s+New+Beach+Towel&qid=1585726612&sr=8-1
1998
(A third book in the “Lottie’s World” series, A Cake for H...)
A third book in the “Lottie’s World” series, A Cake for Herbie, features the lovable Herbie in the starring role as he tries to win first prize, a big layer cake, in a poetry contest. Using his talent with words, Herbie pens an alphabet poem all about food. When the day of the contest finally arrives, Herbie anxiously awaits his turn to deliver his poem. Unfortunately for Herbie, his best friend Lottie is ill in bed and not able to comfort him after the audience of snooty birds boos him off of the stage. Embarrassed, Herbie takes refuge in a nearby restaurant whose workers lift his spirits and delight in his poetry. At the end of the night, the appreciative restaurant staff presents Herbie with a cake of his own, and more importantly, with a healthy dose of encouragement.
https://www.amazon.com/Cake-Herbie-Petra-Mathers-ebook/dp/B00MK392PE/ref=pd_sim_351_1/147-1315509-9623526?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00MK392PE&pd_rd_r=29338b95-21c2-4ee2-9c7e-04edca4fd057&pd_rd_w=Xh1xU&pd_rd_wg=YWM92&pf_rd_p=bab57536-7c8f-4781-a8ed-3e270b9cd303&pf_rd_r=1TMT0ZE6XSPAE0DCYBCN&psc=1&refRID=1TMT0ZE6XSPAE0DCYBCN
2000
(The next installment of the “Lottie’s World” series, Dodo...)
The next installment of the “Lottie’s World” series, Dodo Gets Married, was published in 2001. In this episode, Dodo meets Captain Vince, who has confined himself to his house after losing his leg during a helicopter rescue mission. Dodo seeks to draw out the curmudgeonly Vince, who refuses to leave home because he fears that his friends will pity his physical condition. As they spend more time together, Vince’s attitude toward life begins to change, and he and Dodo become engaged to be married. Despite a few wedding-related mishaps, the two birds manage to get hitched and embark on a happy life together.
https://www.amazon.com/Dodo-Gets-Married-Schwartz-Books/dp/0689830181/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Dodo+Gets+Married&qid=1585727111&s=digital-text&sr=1-1-catcorr
2001
illustrator painter writer author
Petra Mathers was born in 1945 in Todtmoos, Germany during the last year of World War II and immigrated to the United States as a young woman.
Mather's family moved to Stuttgart, where she went to elementary school, and then to Wiesbaden, where she attended the gymnasium. Although Mathers never went to art school, when she was eleven, a friend of her father's gave her an art calendar, and it truly changed her life. When her father's friend realized how much she loved it he gave Petra a little art dictionary. And she learned the names and the styles quickly and found them all fascinating. Her parents also had two heavy books of art, and Petra was always on the floor looking at them. One was a collection of Rubens' drawings and the other was a book of engravings by Albrecht Dürer. They were simply marvelous. Her father, who worked at a champagne company, brought home Graphis magazine from Switzerland, and Petra just pounced on those.
When Mathers graduated from the gymnasium, instead of going to college she became an apprentice in the book business, working in a publishing company and taking classes in business and literature Mathers had no formal art training, but all through her early childhood and high-school years she just continued to make pictures.
As a youth, Petra worked in a bookstore, and it was there that she met her first husband. In 1965 they traveled together to America and they settled in Portland, Oregon. In the 1970s Mathers and her young son moved from Portland to the coastal town of Cannon Beach, Oregon. She loved it there. She began drawing and painting pictures for her son's room, and in 1973 had her first exhibition at the White Bird Gallery. At the same time, she was working as a waitress at the Whaler Restaurant, but after a few years, her paintings began to sell well and she was able to leave her waitressing job. In 1980, she was able to enjoy an adventurous respite when she and her husband spent some time in the South China Sea. When they returned, the couple settled on Long Island. Later, Mathers showed her portfolio at HarperCollins and was hired to illustrate Miriam Chaikin’s How Yossi Beat the Evil Urge.
In 1985, Mathers’s debut as an author won her an Ezra Jack Keats medal.
Petra Mathers, a four-time winner of the annual New York Times prize for Best Illustrated Children's Book, has earned accolades for the depth and complexity of her artwork, which features richly hued, flat shapes. Mathers is also the writer of several highly-regarded picture books for children featuring stories circling around quietly eccentric humans most often portrayed as animals.
(A third book in the “Lottie’s World” series, A Cake for H...)
2000(Set in Germany in the years just after World War II, the ...)
1995(The plot follows the development of Sophie, a painfully s...)
1991(The chicken of the title belongs to Signora Rinaldo, a Ne...)
1985(The next installment of the “Lottie’s World” series, Dodo...)
2001(Lottie, a chicken, and her best friend Herbie, a duck, pl...)
1998(In ''Victor and Christabel'' Mathers’s heroes are two cro...)
1993(The title characters are a dog and its owner. Theodor is ...)
1988Petra compares illustrating other people’s books to “visiting.” Certain politeness, consideration, and modesty are necessary.
She is a self-described “sucker for love” and her stories are always about love - she finds unsung heroes very endearing, as well as the clumsy, balding, fumbling, shy creatures who are quietly heroic, risking everything for love.
One of the most intriguing things about Petra Mathers is that she had absolutely no thought of ever becoming an artist, and yet from the moment she could clutch a crayon or hold a pencil, she made pictures. She was always drawing for as long as she can remember, but not well. In fact, in school her work was always shown as inadequate, but she didn't really care she just kept on drawing. Growing up in Germany post-World War II, Mathers had very few books available to her. But living in the Black Forest, she was surrounded by nature. She loved the birds of spring and the puddles and all the different smells that came as soon as summer changed to fall, but her favorite thing of all was just playing alone and making up imaginary stories and games.
Mathers has said that she often finds it difficult to begin a new project. She procrastinates and fears that any moment the children’s book patrol will drive up and take all her stuff away and seal off her studio. But all the while, slowly, a story comes together, crude and on wobbly legs. She is doing exactly what she wants to be doing with plenty of room for improvement.
Petra is married to Michael Mathers, they have one son.
