Petra Mathers

From undies to jammies to a much-loved hand-me-down sweatshirt, the talking clothes in these poems know just who they are and who's wearing them

With the encouragement of his friend, Herbie spends days writing poems about food for a contest and although he does not win, he does find an appreciative audience.

Dodo, an exotic German bird, befriends a one-legged retired sea captain and marries him.

The shy guard at an art museum falls in love with the sad young woman in a painting that mysteriously appears one day.

Here are poems about people and animal, set in such far-flung places as Minot, Minneapolis, tuscaloosa, tucumcari, and the Grand Canyon.

A young boy really wants a snake of his own, and after his mother reads a book about snakes and takes him to a museum and a pet store to see some, he finds his own pet "snakes" around the house.

A mother making a quilt for her child stitches the varied topography of their beautiful island into her patchwork pattern

A little boy floats away on his balloon across mountains, plains, cities, and the sea, until he lands on a desert island.

Because their mother seems too busy preparing for company, Christopher and Robbie cook up the idea of a Mom pie to serve as her surrogate.