Jacqueline Briggs Martin

Publications and Awards• 2 Notable Children’s Trade Book in the Field of

Social Studies commendation • 3 National Council for the Social

Studies/Children’s Book Council (NCSS/CBC)• 3 Notable Book for Children’s Citation• 3 American Library Association (ALA)• Lupine Award• Children’s Book of Distinction• Blue Ribbon Book Citation• Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books• Smithsonian Magazine• Caldecott Award• Golden Kite Award

Biographical Information-Born on April 15, 1945 in Lewiston, Maine -Married to Richard Martin and has two children Justin and Sarah-B.A. degree from Wellesley College and M.A degree in Child Development from University of Minnesota-Author

Author Highlights Lived on a dairy farm as a child Currently lives in Iowa close to Cornell College

where her husband is an English professor She chose to become an author because her

children loved books so much She started writing when her children where in

preschool and has done it everyday since, except holidays or traveling days

Ideas for her stories came from everywhere: her family, magazine articles and her surroundings

She has successfully written 18 children’s books In her spare time she likes camping, hiking, growing

roses and hot peppers She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book

Writers and Illustrators, Authors Guild

Major WorksSeptember 28, 1998, Caldecott Award, This book is about a man named Wilson Bentley, who lived on a farm in Jericho, Vermont in the heart of Vermont’s snowblet. Bentley loved snow more than anything in the world. When he was fifteen his mother bought him a microscope so he could examine the snowflakes. He then wanted to share the beauty of the snowflakes with others, but he did not know how. Everyone thought he was foolish to want to save snowflakes but by the time he died he was considered the world’s expert on snowflakes.

1996,Lupine Award and Children’s Book of Distinction, After Sarah loses her dog in a fire, her nightmares begin. In her story of healing, a one-eyed cat, a gaggle of unfriendly geese, and the special things in Grandmother Bryant's pocket turn out to be just the cure for Sarah's bad dreams.

2005,Blue Ribbon Book and American Library Assoication,In 1913, a boat named Karluk, Aleutian for "fish," part of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, became stuck in the Arctic ice. On board were a captain and crew, scientists and explorers, a cat, forty sled dogs, Iñupiaq hunters, and an Iñupiaq family with two small girls. Even with the Iñupiaq and their skills of hunting and sewing, even with the family"s care and wisdom, even with the compassion and courage of their captain, odds for survival in the cold, dark Arctic seem against the passengers of the Karluk. Here is a riveting, unforgettable story, poetically told and exquisitely illustrated with rounded scratchboard art that captures the strength and grace of Iñupiaq culture. Details of centuries-old crafts and skills—of sewing boots from caribou legs and ugruk skin, of quickly cutting snow houses, of wearing wooden goggles to ward off snowblindness—will enrich modern imaginations. And by the story"s end, listeners will know something of the way of life in the high north, something of the song of the place, the wide sky, the sound of the wind, the ptarmigan.