Petra Mathers 

“When I received my ‘assignment,’ The White House First Residents,” writes Petra Mathers, “I was delighted by Jane Yolen's poem “An Imagined Conversation Between John and Abigail Adams.”  It made me look forward to spending some time with this great couple. In preparation, I read The Letters of John and Abigail Adams (Penguin Classics) and realized how perfectly the poem captures the love and friendship between these two extraordinary people.

“Knowing from The Letters how often John and Abigail had to spend months on end apart, it was a special pleasure to be able to depict them here in one room together conversing rather than writing to each other.”

Books by Petra Mathers:

The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders written by Jack Prelutsky (HarperCollins)
Pierre in Love written by Sara Pennypack (Scholastic Press)
Strange Mr. Satie written by M. T. Anderson (Viking)
Frannie’s Fruits written by Leslie Kimmelman (HarperCollins)
Grandmother Bryant’s Pocket (Houghton Mifflin)
Lottie’s New Beach Towe (Simon & Schuster)