Patricia Miles Martin Explained

Patricia Miles Martin
Pseudonym:Miska Miles
Birth Date:November 14, 1899
Birth Place:Cherokee, Kansas, USA
Death Date:January 2, 1986
Occupation:Author
Nationality:American
Genre:Children's literature

Patricia Miles Martin (November 14, 1899 – January 2, 1986) was an American children's author who wrote American historical fiction, non-fiction, and biographies. She published under her own name as well as the names Miska Miles, Patricia A. Miles, and Jerry Lane. As Miska Miles, she received a Newbery Honor for her book Annie and the Old One in 1972.

Biography

Born in Cherokee, Kansas, she graduated from the University of Wyoming. Following her graduation, she worked for four years as an elementary school teacher in Denver, Colorado and Arminto, Wyoming. Martin and her husband, Edward R. Martin, then moved to California.

In 1957, Martin enrolled in an upholstery class at San Mateo College. When she discovered that the class was full, she sat down instead in a creative writing class where seats were available. During that course, she wrote the manuscript that would become her first published book, Sylvester and the Voice in the Forest (1958). Martin would go on to write more than 100 stories in her career under several pen names. In 2013, a passage from Martin's Otter in the Cove was used in the New York State standardized test in reading in the second year that the tests were aligned to the Common Core.[1]

Martin wrote fiction with characters from a wide range of ethnic communities, picture books for beginning readers, and twelve biographies, for Putnam's "See & Read/Begin to Read Biography Series." Some of her inspiration came from the events that happened in her youth while living on a farm in Kansas and on a Navajo reservation. Stories with Navajo characters, for example, include Annie and the Old One, Gracie and the Biggest Pumpkin and Navajo Pets. She presented a child's view of many social and family struggles. The Washington Post, described Annie and the Old One, the story of a Navajo “girl's love for her grandmother and her struggle to understand the impending death of the old woman," a topic she presented with "gentle restraint."[2]

Martin died in 1986. Her papers are held by the University of Southern Mississippi library, the University of Minnesota library, and University of Wyoming's American Heritage Center.[3]

Awards and honors

Pointed Brush was a New York Herald Tribune Children’s Spring Book Festival Honor book in 1959.[4]

Wharf Rat received a New York Academy of Science Citation in 1973.

Annie and the Old One was an ALA Newbery Medal Honor book for 1972. It also won a Christopher Medal (1972), and received the Brooklyn Museum-Brooklyn Public Library Art Book for Children’s citation (1973). It was nominated for a 1972-1973 Mark Twain Award. It was also made into a short film in 1976.

Fourteen of Martin's books were honored as Junior Literary Guild selections.[5]

Published books

Notes and References

  1. News: 2014-08-14 . Test Yourself: 5 Questions About a Girl and an Otter . en-US . The New York Times . 2023-02-10 . 0362-4331.
  2. News: New in Paperback . Washington Post. August 11, 1985. January 22, 2021.
  3. Kilander, Ginny. December 2005. Guide to Authors. University of Wyoming American Heritage Center.. 60-61.
  4. Cullinan, Bernice E. and Diane Goetz Person, eds.‘Martin, Patricia Miles (Miska Miles)” The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children's Literature p. 521.
  5. "Patricia Miles Martin." Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors, Gale, 2003. Gale In Context: Biography, link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1000064663/BIC?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=1466c09f. Accessed 3 July 2022.
  6. Harris, Gloria. Review of “The Little Brown Hen by Patricia Miles Martin, Thos. Y. Corwell”. The Journal of Nursery Education. Vol. 19, No. 4 (SEPTEMBER, 1964), p. 264.
  7. Web site: Families Are Like That: Stories to Read to Yourself. Kirkus Reviews. March 1, 1975. 7 July 2022.
  8. Web site: Mississippi Possum (Starred review) . Kirkus Reviews. March 1, 1966. 3 July 2022.
  9. Web site: Rolling the Cheese. March 1, 1966. Kirkus Reviews. 2 July 2022.
  10. Web site: Fox and the Fire (Starred review) . Kirkus Reviews. February 1, 1966. 3 July 2022.
  11. Web site: Uncle Fonzo's Ford (Starred Review) . Kirkus Reviews. April 1, 1968. 3 July 2022.
  12. Behnke, Frances L. Review of “Eskimos: People of Alaska by Patricia Miles Martin.” The American Biology Teacher. Vol. 33, No. 2 (Feb., 1971), pp. 121-122.
  13. Edwards, Pat. . 20 July 1973 . A Bibliography of Appalachian Children and Young People's Books. Berea College, KY.
  14. Web site: Annie and the Old One. Literature Arts Medicine Database. Jun 14, 2004. 7 July 2022.
  15. Ordal. Carol C.. May 1, 1984. Death as Seen in Books Suitable for Young Children. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying. 14. 3. 249–277. 10.2190/W04T-7CAN-LT3B-XBQD. 145096677 .
  16. Web site: Two plays about foolish people. Internet Archive . February 11, 2021. September 3, 2022.
  17. Book: Haviland, Virginia . Children's Books, 1976: A List of Books for Preschool through Junior High School Age . 1977 . Superintendent of Documents, U . en.
  18. Bracken, Jeanne and Sharon Wigutoff. 1979. Books for Today’s Children: An Annotated Bibliography of Non-Stereotyped Picture Books. Old Wesbury, NY: The Feminist Press. p. 22.
  19. Small Rabbit by Miska Miles illustrated by Jim Aronsky Scholastic Book Services 1977, end note

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