SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: WHOSE TRACKS IN THE SNOW?
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.alexandramilton.com/
CITY: London
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
LAST VOLUME: SATA 276
Works with husband Giles Milton
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1966, in England; married Alexandra Aichele (an illustrator); children: three daughters.
EDUCATION:University of Bristol, degree (English).
ADDRESS
CAREER
Historian, journalist, and author.
AWARDS:Kate Greenaway Award nomination, 2010, for Good Luck Baby Owls illustrated by Alexandra Milton.
WRITINGS
Contributor to magazines and newspapers, especially in the area of travel.
SIDELIGHTS
In addition to his work as a travel journalist, Giles Milton has followed the trail of history to produce popular histories on topics or individuals that serve to highlight a larger issue or epoch. In Nathaniel’s Nutmeg; or, The True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of History, for example, Milton introduces readers to English captain Nathaniel Courthope, whose perilous adventures in the Pacific illuminate the spice wars waged between British and Dutch fleets during the sixteenth century. White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam’s One Million White Slaves draws on another life story to illuminate an era when Europeans were enslaved by ruthless Moroccan Sultan Moulay Ismail, while the experiences of his German-born father in law, an artistic boy coming of age in Nazi Germany, is Milton’s focus in The Boy Who Went to War. In Geographical Mick Herron wrote of White Gold that here the author casts “an interesting light … on a dark corner of history,” while in Library Journal Robert C. Jones deemed the narrative history “a thorough and well-researched presentation of a lesser-known chapter in the history of slavery.”
Turning to fiction, Milton entertains adult readers in his novel Edward Trencom’s Nose: A Novel of History, Dark Intrigue, and Cheese, which is set in 1969 and finds a cheese aficionado learning that several enterprising ancestors died in grisly, suspicious ways and that he may be next. In the novel Children of the Witch he transports middle-grade readers back to 1585, where two siblings undertake a voyage to the New World. Once there, they attempt to make friends of the native people they encounter until the greed of their colony’s leader results in the destruction of their new home and puts both young people in terrible danger.
Milton breaks with history entirely in his work with wife Alexandra Milton, an artist and illustrator with whom he has produced the picture books Good Luck Baby Owls and Call Me Gorgeous! In Good Luck Baby Owls Milton’s evocative prose captures the curiosity of two young barn owls as they feel the first pangs of independence and decide to explore the nighttime world outside their nest.
Also featuring Alexandra Milton’s highly textured multimedia collage art, Call Me Gorgeous! introduces a narrator who tantalizes readers as he describes one aspect of his anatomy per page, each one—from crocodile teeth to pig’s ear to reindeer antler to porcupine quill to bat wings—calling to mind a totally different animal. “A fantastical mix of odds and ends,” according to Kristen McKulski in Booklist, Milton’s multi-faceted creature gains added charms from the artist’s torn-paper “collage and colored-pencil” images, which “deftly mimic a variety of textures.” “This unique book is as fun and brassy as it is visually striking,” asserted a Publishers Weekly critic, and in School Librarian Barbara Band wrote that in Call Me Gorgeous! the husband-and-wife team has produced “a wonderfully intriguing picture book that cries out to be read aloud.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Atlantic Monthly, October 1, 2008, review of Paradise Lost: Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of Islam’s City of Tolerance, p. 117.
Booklist, May 15, 1999, Danise Hoover, review of Nathaniel’s Nutmeg; or, The True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of History, p. 1649; November 15, 2000, Margaret Flanagan, review of Big Chief Elizabeth: The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in America, p. 607; October 15, 2001, Margaret Flanagan, review of The Riddle and the Knight: In Search of Sir John Mandeville, the World’s Greatest Traveler, p. 376; December 15, 2002, Kristine Huntley, review of Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan, p. 730; May 15, 2005, Jay Freeman, review of White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam’s One Million White Slaves, p. 1620; July 1, 2008, Gilbert Taylor, review of Paradise Lost, p. 32; December 1, 2009, Kristen McKulski, review of Call Me Gorgeous!, p. 49; April 1, 2014, Gilbert Taylor, review of Russian Roulette: How British Spies Thwarted Lenin’s Plot for Global Revolution, p. 5.
Independent (London, England), June 9, 2008, Alev Adil, review of Paradise Lost.
Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2001, review of The Riddle and the Knight, p. 1469; November 1, 2002, review of Samurai William, p. 1595; April 15, 2008, review of Paradise Lost; October 1, 2009, review of Call Me Gorgeous!; March 15, 2014, review of Russian Roulette.
Kliatt, January, 2002, Janet Julian, review of Big Chief Elizabeth, p. 31.
Library Journal, May 15, 1999, David Keymer, review of Nathaniel’s Nutmeg, p. 108; October 1, 2000, John R. Burch, Jr., review of Big Chief Elizabeth, p. 122; December, 2002, Steven I. Levine, review of Samurai William, p. 150; July 1, 2005, Robert C. Jones, review of White Gold, p. 97; July 1, 2008, Veronica Arellano, review of Paradise Lost, p. 95.
New Statesman (London, England), September 18, 2000, Anne Somerset, review of Big Chief Elizabeth, p. 54; June 14, 2004, Frank McLynn, review of White Gold, p. 51.
New Yorker, July 28, 2008, review of Paradise Lost, p. 81.
New York Times, November 23, 2000, Janet Maslin, review of Big Chief Elizabeth, pp. B16, E18; December 2, 2001, Geoffrey Moorhouse, review of The Riddle and the Knight, p. 26; April 27, 2003, Susan Chira, review of Samurai William, p. 18.
Publishers Weekly, April 5, 1999, review of Nathaniel’s Nutmeg, p. 232; October 16, 2000, review of Big Chief Elizabeth, p. 58; October 8, 2001, review of The Riddle and the Knight, p. 53; January 6, 2003, review of Samurai William, p. 52; May 2, 2005, review of White Gold, p. 187; February 26, 2007, review of Edward Trencom’s Nose: A Novel of History, Dark Intrigue, and Cheese, p. 58; June 16, 2008, review of Paradise Lost, p. 43; November 16, 2009, review of Call Me Gorgeous!, p. 51; August 15, 2011, review of The Boy Who Went to War; January 27, 2014, review of Russian Roulette, p. 178.
School Librarian, spring, 2013, Barbara Band, review of Call Me Gorgeous!, p. 35.
School Library Journal, January, 2010, Heidi Estrin, review of Call Me Gorgeous!, p. 79.
Spectator (London, England), June 22, 2002, Sara Wheeler, review of Samurai William, p. 50; June 12, 2004, Philip Hensher, review of White Gold, p. 42; May 10, 2008, review of Paradise Lost, p. 40.
ONLINE
Giles Milton Home Page, http://www.gilesmilton.com (September 1, 2014).*
Alexandra Milton is an artist and illustrator.
Her chosen media is collage. She has developed a unique artistic style, collecting paper from around the world which she tears and weaves into a multitude of layers to represent animals, birds and plants.
Born in Paris, Alexandra grew up watching her father, the distinguished German-born watercolour artist Wolfram (Aichele), at work. His teaching, together with his personal style and subtle use of colour, have been crucial to her artistic development.
Visits to the studio of her artist grandfather Erwin Aichele have also influenced Alexandra’s work: among her most vivid childhood memories are the birds in their aviaries, the studio filled with stuffed animals and the smell of turpentine.
It is from Erwin that Alexandra inherited the urge to capture in colour and shape the beauty of the animal world.
The story of both artists is described in the book: Wolfram, the boy who went to war by Giles Milton (Hodder&Stoughton).
Alexandra’s work was first exhibited in 2009 in Germany when she participated in a major exhibition of the works of her grandfather, father, her brother, the jeweller Benedikt Aichele, and four of her cousins : artists, jewellers, photographers and illustrators.
She was then represented by the Rebecca Hossack gallery, London who has shown her work throughout the world and taken it to in major international fairs.
Alexandra now lives in London with her husband, the writer Giles Milton, and her daughters.
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Alexandra has illustrated four children’s books: Call Me Gorgeous which was nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal 2010. It was also selected as a Bookstart title, 2010, and Bookbuzz title, 2012.
Good Luck Baby Owls ,“Who is in the Egg?” which has been published in several languages and most recently “Whose Tracks in the snow?”
Her pictures belong to a long tradition of art that celebrates the diversity of the animal world.
She draws inspiration from a wide variety of sources: medieval bestiaries, Chinese scroll paintings, Indian Tree of life wall hangings, Islamic Iznik tiles, Victorian dome jar bird displays and the works of natural history artists such as John White and Sarah Stone.
Alexandra Milton
Author & Illustrator
Alexandra Milton was born in Paris and brought up on a diet of beautifully illustrated children's books. After living in Germany, she studied art and English in Paris before moving to England, where she worked as a primary school teacher before becoming a full-time artist. Alexandra draws inspiration from her father, Wolfram Aichele, and grandfather, Erwin Aichele, both distinguished German abstract artists. Alexandra lives in London with her husband – author Giles Milton – and their three daughters.
Milton, Alexandra WHOSE TRACKS IN THE SNOW? Boxer Books (Children's None) $17.99 10, 4 ISBN: 978-1-912757-94-7
Clues and descriptive language will spur children to become wintertime trackers.
Rhyming text that begins identically on every other spread--"Look! Look! / Tracks in the snow!"--describes the main characteristics of each track for readers and then asks them to guess who made it. "Tracks with three points, / Tracks like a wedge. / Who left the tracks by the snow-topped hedge?" Smudgy black tracks echo what children would see in nature, and a glimpse of a part of each animal gives a further clue. In this case, the vibrant tip of a blue, yellow, and orange tail. The page turn reveals the answer--a long-tailed pheasant--and a short paragraph of information. Though the rhyme stumbles once (claws with fours), the descriptions of tracks are stellar, giving kids similes and adjectives that they can then use for other things; the duck's tracks are like kites, the red squirrel's are like fingers and have claws, and the deer's are heart-shaped and in two lines. Made with shredded and torn handmade paper and colored pencil, the spreads are filled with gorgeous textures, encouraging the eye to pore over not just the tracks, but the animals' habitats as well. The snow isn't flat white; it has shadings and color variations. And while the animals look realistically furry or feathered, the foliage is more stylistic: a pine with lace collars of snow, another with delicately feathered branches. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Sure to lure children into the woods. (life-size tracks) (Informational picture book. 3-7)
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"Milton, Alexandra: WHOSE TRACKS IN THE SNOW?" Kirkus Reviews, 15 Sept. 2022, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A717107297/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=df7101ec. Accessed 1 Jan. 2023.