Maria Montoya Martinez: Master Potter
At age nine, Maria Montoya Martinez was stricken with smallpox.  Near death, she lay limply in her mother's arms, unable even to swallow  the herbal teas offered her. All the attempts to revive her seemed to  have failed. Trying one last remedy, her aunt and mother filled the  hearth with thick green cedar boughs and smoked the room, waving the  fumes towards the sick little girl. Maria's mother desperately prayed to  Santo Nino, the children's saint, promising that if Maria lived, she  would send her on a pilgrimage to see him. Maria lived to make the  pilgrimage and enjoy a long life. But she was forever marked by this  event.Maria's pilgrimage to the Santuario in Chimayo, New Mexico, becomes a  symbol of her life. It is a journey towards humility, hard work, and  perfection. She feels special since she was favored to live. And so she  constantly strives to create the most worthy pots she can, always keeping  in mind Old Grandmother's prowess with clay. The clay connects her to the  earth, and the clay links her to her future husband, Julian, who becomes  a painter of her pots. Throughout the years, she is blessed and blesses  her whole pueblo with money and, more importantly, love.Maria Montoya Martinez: Master Potteris the biography of a very sick  little girl who grew to be a strong and talented woman. She won many  awards through the years for her pottery, representing her people and her  art well.Elsie Karr Kreischer was a personal friend of Maria Montoya Martinez. A  writer based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, she is also the author of TheNavaho Magic of Hunting, which won the 1992 National League of American  Pen Women Children's Book Award.Roberta Sinnock is the owner of Seven Oaks Studio, a 20-year-old company  that specializes in book design and illustration. She earned her B.F.A.  from Arizona State University with a specialty in graphic design and  currently resides in Tucson, Arizona. --From the Publisher