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KatherinePaterson “It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations- something that will help them make sense of their own lives and encourage them to reach out toward people whose lives are quite different from their own.”
“Youth is a mortal wound.” Katherine Womeldorf was born in 1932 in China to Presbyterian minister parents. As a child, she moved 18 times in 18 years. In her novels, Katherine often writes about the outsider. Every time she moved to a new school and had to try to make new friends. She was teased “mish” for being the child of missionaries or “Jap” for having lived in Asia during the WWII era. Katherine was shy and had an accent from her first 10 years in China. (CST 21,22)
What I want to say to isolated, angry, fearful youth- to all the children who feel that their lives are worthless in the eyes of the world: you are seen, you are not alone, you are not despised, you are unique and of infinite value in the human family. When I do so, I am reaching back into the story of my own life, remembering the times when I was isolated, angry, fearful and feeling despised and left out.
“Reading can be a road to freedom or a key to a secret garden, which, if tended, will transform all of life.” Katherine found solace in books. Some of her earliest and fondest memories are of her mother reading to her. At the age of 5 when Katherine learned to read, it opened a whole new world of comfort from the loneliness of her transient life. Later in 5th grade, Katherine wrote plays for her classmates to act out and from this she became accepted and even popular. In her early teen years, Katherine was a library aide where she read stories to younger children. She found great comfort in the library giving children the gift of literature and having access to all the books for herself.
“I came home from first grade on February 14 without a single valentine… My mother ask(ed) me once why I didn’t write a story about the time I didn’t get any valentines. “But, Mother,” I said “all my stories are about the time I didn’t get any valentines.””
“Thus, in a real sense, I am constantly writing autobiography, but I have to turn it into fiction in order to give it credibility.” Katherine graduated high school in 1950 and went onto college at Kings College, TN near the Great Smoky Mountains. The ending of her Newberry Medal winning novel, Jacob Have I Loved takes place in a mountain town similar to those seen while living in Tennessee. Katherine Paterson says that of all her novels, this is the one for which she feels the most pride in accomplishing. Like most female protagonists in Paterson’s novels, Sara Louise, in Jacob Have I Loved is not the traditional depiction of a girl. Sara is an outsider in her close knit, conservative Chesapeake Bay fishmerman community. She fishes for crabs and oysters with her male best and only friend as well as with her father. Sara Louise battles with deep jealousy for her twin sister Caroline. In contrast to her tom-boy interests and dark moods, Caroline is a flouncy golden child with a gift for song. The book follows Sara Louise into womanhood as she struggles to find acceptance within herself for being different than the rest of her community. She is eventually able to leave the island and move to the Great Smoky Mountains and build a life for herself on her own terms.
After graduating summa cum laude she became a sixth grade teacher in a small, poor, farm town in Virginia. The elementary school in Bridge to Terabithiais loosely based on her experience as a teacher in Lovettsville, VA.
In 1957, Katherine completed the masters program at the Presbyterian School of Christian Education. She then went to live and work in Japan as a missionary.
“Read for your life!” Katherine Paterson was chosen in 2010 as the Ambassador by the Librarian of Congress. The aim of the ambassador is to increase our nation’s awareness of the importance of reading literature and the link to literacy and education in young people’s lives. “The National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature is named by the Librarian of Congress for a two-year term, based on recommendations from a selection committee representing many segments of the book community. The selection criteria include the candidate’s contribution to young people’s literature and ability to relate to children.”
Reading surely turned me into a writer, but, more importantly, it has enriched and challenged my life, so I want to use my time and voice these two years as ambassador to urge every young person I speak to and anyone who has anything to do with the young, to take time away from your busy lives and electronic tools and toys to read. I have yet to meet the person who has tweeted her way to wisdom.
Fun Facts • Her siblings nicknamed her “Spook baby” for her Halloween birthday. • Katherine could read by the time she was 5.
Young Adult Juvenile The Sign of the Chrysanthemum, 1973. Bridge to Terabithia, 1977. YA Come Sing, Jimmy Jo, 1985. The Day of the Pelican, 2009 The Field of the Dogs, 2001 Flip-Flop Girl, 1994. The Great Gilly Hopkins, 1978. Jip, His Story, 1996. The Master Puppeteer, 1975. Of Nightingales That Weep, 1974. Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom, 1983. Preacher’s Boy, 1999. Park's Quest, 1988. Parzival: The Quest of the Grail Knight, 1998. • Jacob Have I Loved, 1980. YA • Lyddie, 1991. YA • The Same Stuff as Stars, 2002 YA • Bread and Roses, Too, 2006 YA
“My childhood dream was, of course, to be a missionary to China and eat Chinese food three times a day.” Katherine Womeldorf was born on October 31, 1932 in Qing Jiang, Jiangsu, China. Her parents were Presbyterian missionaries and her father was a principal at a school for boys in the city of Hwaian. Katherine and her family lived in the Chinese community which was rare for Westerners to do at the time. She spoke Chinese, loved the local cuisine, and felt a special kinship with her Chinese playmates and neighbors. In 1941, Katherine’s family returned to the U.S. for good because China was no longer safe for Americans due to WWII.
