When Aunt Mattie Got Her Wings

July 21, 2014
Best friends Lottie the chicken and Herbie the duck from Lottie’s New Beach Towel and its sequels face the death of Lottie’s Aunt Mattie. Their sorrow is palpable, yet the story requires familiarity with Mathers’s characters. When Herbie learns that Mattie is ailing, he protests that she is a nurse. “She isn’t sick; she’s ninety-nine years old,” Lottie replies. “You mean it’s like her motor is all worn out?” Herbie asks, his metaphor complicating the information about nursing and old age. Lottie hurries to the hospital and finds Mattie gazing out the window at a billboard picturing a passenger jet; after a bit of conversation, Mattie closes her eyes peacefully. A wordless page pictures a group of birds welcoming Mattie to a plane labeled “Out of This World Airlines”—the source of the book’s euphemistic title. Mathers’s landscape layout moves the action ahead in placid, thoughtful, comics-style panels; Herbie arrives to comfort Lottie, and the friends celebrate Mattie’s life and scatter her ashes. Heartfelt though it is, this tale muddles the common experience of grief with distracting extraneous details. Ages 4–8.

Starred review from August 1, 2014
Lottie the hen must say goodbye to her beloved aunt Mattie in this gentle story about loss, grief and friendship. When the hospital calls to say Aunt Mattie is getting weak, Lottie journeys to see her. On the long bus ride, happy memories surface-of shared picnics and jokes, and of Mattie herself, a bird full of humor and gusto, who found her calling as a nurse. But now Aunt Mattie is 99, ready to fly to the great beyond. For hours, Lottie sits with her aunt at the hospital. Descriptive details (the sound of Aunt Mattie's breathing, the way she looks in the hospital bed, the feeling of day turning to night) are simply captured; yet in doing so, Mathers brings meaning to the clinical and unfamiliar. Here, these moments are precious and valuable. Throughout the tale, Lottie's friend Herbie is a comforting presence. His innocent perspective allows even the very young to grasp complex concepts. As he drives Lottie to the bus station, meets her at the hospital and shares in her heartache, it's clear his friendship and support make this difficult time bearable for Lottie. Together, the two scatter Aunt Mattie's ashes in the ocean, so she'll "always be near...mixed in with sand and sea." Watercolor illustrations, painted in mostly square panels and organized like an old newspaper comic strip, are earnest and appealing.Lucid and insightful, Mathers presents death and grief as natural processes with compassion and great care. (Picture book. 3-7)

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July 1, 2014

K-Gr 2-In her latest installment in the "Lottie" picture book series, featuring the likable chicken and her fine-feathered friends, Mathers explores death with a gentle, yet matter-of-fact, straightforwardness. Lottie's Aunt Mattie is ninety-nine years old and, as best friend Herbie explains, "her motor is all worn out." Lottie travels to the hospital to visit her aunt, for what "may be the last time," along the way reminiscing about fond times spent together. When Lottie finally arrives at Aunt Mattie's bedside, Mathers does not shy away from the gravity of the situation. Lottie is shown holding her aunt's hand, a tear falling from her eye. Aunt Mattie talks about a group waiting for her at the gate; she imagines a cadre of birdie friends next to a commercial airplane ("Out of This World Airlines"), waving and greeting her as she ascends. Soon after, Aunt Mattie dies and Lottie and Herbie must wait for her ashes and deal with their grief. Mather's simple watercolors, constrained within boxed frames on most pages, serve to focus the emotional impact of the sad events, without overwhelming readers. Text that includes terms such as "dead," "funeral home," and "cremated" offer a refreshingly factual and specific depiction of death and dying. While Lottie and Herbie experience the heartache of losing a loved one, they comfort each other and find strength in remembering Aunt Mattie and continuing her tradition of picnicking on Pudding Rock while eating Mattie's signature sandwich: peanut butter and jelly with bananas. A wonderful addition to collections on death and grief for children.--Kiera Parrott, School Library Journal

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2014
Preschool-G *Starred Review* There are many books about death for children, but this one, in both tone and tale, is unique. Lottie the hen phones her friend Herbie the duck when she learns that 99-year-old Aunt Mattie is very ill. Herbie gets it. You mean it's like her motor is all worn out. On the bus ride into town, Lottie thinks about the fun the three of them have had, especially taking the motorboat out to Pudding Rock. Once in the hospital, Lottie must adjust to what's going on as she watches her aunt breath heavily and realizes that they are spending their last moments together. Then Aunt Mattie is gone. Although Herbie fears the tunnel traffic, he has braved it to be with Lottie, and he is at her side when she says, I am so sad. Herbie reminds her, We are together. Later, at Auntie's home, Lottie finds a letter from her that helps a little, and later Lottie and Herbie go to Pudding Rock and scatter her ashes. Both funny and wise, this covers the many moments that make up a death: the memories, the sadness, and the solace. Mathers' small, squared watercolor art is simple yet touched with whimsy (in one scene, Aunt Mattie gets ready for takeoff with friends greeting her at a plane), while the text knowingly captures the feelings of the bereaved: Maybe our hearts ache because Aunt Mattie is moving in.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)