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.[1] As Miska Miles, she received a Newbery Honor for her book Annie and the Old One in 1972.[2]
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.[1] During that course, she wrote the manuscript that would become her first published book, Sylvester and the Voice in the Forest (1958).[3] 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.[5]
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."[1] 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.[1] 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."[6]
Pointed Brush was a New York Herald Tribune Children’s Spring Book Festival Honor book in 1959.[8]
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).[8] It was nominated for a 1972-1973 Mark Twain Award.[1] It was also made into a short film in 1976.[9]
^"New in Paperback". Washington Post. August 11, 1985. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
^Kilander, Ginny (December 2005). Guide to Authors (Report). University of Wyoming American Heritage Center. p. 60-61.
^ abCullinan, Bernice E. and Diane Goetz Person, eds.‘Martin, Patricia Miles (Miska Miles)” The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children's Literature p. 521.
^Abenheim, Ted, Annie and the Old One (Short, Drama), Greenhouse Films, retrieved 2023-02-10
^"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.
^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.
^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.
^ abEdwards, Pat. (20 July 1973). A Bibliography of Appalachian Children and Young People's Books (Report). Berea College, KY.
^"Annie and the Old One". Literature Arts Medicine Database. Jun 14, 2004. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
^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. doi:10.2190/W04T-7CAN-LT3B-XBQD. S2CID145096677.
^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.
^Small Rabbit by Miska Miles illustrated by Jim Aronsky Scholastic Book Services 1977 ISBN0-590-31288-X, end note
