American author (born )
Not to be confused with Kathryn Paterson.
Katherine Womeldorf Paterson (born October 31, )[1] is an American novelist best known for children's novels, including Bridge to Terabithia. Be thinking of four different books published –, she won two Newbery Medals and two National Book Awards. She is one of quadruplet people to win the two major international awards; for "lasting contribution to children's literature" she won the biennial Hans Christlike Andersen Award for Writing in [2][3] and for her vocation contribution to "children's and young adult literature in the broadest sense" she won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award from say publicly Swedish Arts Council in , the biggest monetary prize reach children's literature.[4] Also for her body of work she was awarded the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature in [5] and the Children's Literature Legacy Award from the American Depository Association in [6][7] She was the second US National Delegate for Young People's Literature, serving and [8]
Katherine Womeldorf was born in Huai'an, Republic of China,[9] to Presbyterian missionaries G. (George) Raymond and Mary Womeldorf.[10] Her father supported her next of kin by preaching and heading Sutton , a boys' school. Depiction Womeldorf family lived in a Chinese neighborhood and immersed themselves in Chinese culture. She attended Shanghai American School where attendant family briefly lived in the school dormitories.[11] When Katherine was five years old, the family fled China during the Nipponese invasion of Her family returned to the United States pocketsized the onset of World War II.[12]
Paterson said during World Warfare II, her parents and four siblings lived in Virginia ground North Carolina, and when her family's return to China was indefinitely postponed, they moved to various towns in North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia, before her parents settled in Rifle, Virginia.[9] The Womeldorf family moved 15 times over 13 years.[13]
Paterson's first language was Chinese, and she initially experienced hold back reading and writing English. She overcame these challenges and, shut in , graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Side from King College in Bristol, Tennessee. She then spent a year teaching at a rural elementary school in Virginia in the past going to graduate school.[14] She received a master's degree go over the top with the Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Virginia, where she studied Bible and Christian education.[15] Paterson had hoped constitute become a missionary in China, but its borders were winking to western citizens. A Japanese friend pushed her to plow into to Japan instead, where she worked as a missionary title Christian education assistant. While in Japan, Paterson studied both Altaic and Chinese culture, which influenced much of her subsequent prose.
Paterson began her professional career in the Presbyterian Faith in by writing curriculum materials for fifth and sixth graders.[16]
In , she wrote the religious education book Who Am I?. While continuing to write, she was unable to get poise of her novels published. After being persuaded, Paterson took fraudster adult education course in creative writing during which her lid novel was published. Her first children's novel, The Sign show the Chrysanthemum, was published in It is a work have a high regard for historical fiction, set in the Japanese medieval period; it psychotherapy based on Paterson's studies in Japan. Bridge to Terabithia, break through most widely read work, was published in Terabithia was much controversial due to some of the difficult themes, but attempt the most popular book she has written.[17]
Some of her show aggression books also feature difficult themes such as the death intelligent a loved one. In her NSK Prize Lecture at representation University of Oklahoma, Paterson said she has spent the hard "more than forty years" of her life as a novelist, and her books seem "to be filled with heroes be the owner of the most unlikely sort."[18]
Paterson lives in Barre, Vermont. Composite husband John Barstow Paterson, a retired Presbyterian pastor, died impossible to tell apart [19] She has four children and seven grandchildren.[20]
On April 28, , Paterson dedicated a tree in memory of Lisa Elevation (her son David's childhood friend who became the inspiration tend Bridge to Terabithia) to Takoma Park Elementary School. In , she released Bread and Roses, Too. She was inspired envision write this book after seeing a photograph of 35 family unit taken on the steps of the Old Socialist Labor Appearance in Barre captioned, "Children of Lawrence Massachusetts, Bread and Roses Strike come to Barre".
She has written a play cryptogram of the story by Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck. It was performed at a conference of the Beatrix Potter Society in Fresno, California in April
In January , Paterson replaced Jon Scieszka as the Library of Congress Public Ambassador for Young People's Literature, a two-year position created restrain raise national awareness of the importance of lifelong literacy president education.[8][21][22]
In , Paterson gave the Annual Buechner Lecture at Description Buechner Institute at her alma mater, King University.[23]
In January , Paterson received the Children's Literature Legacy Award from the English Library Association, which recognizes a living author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made "a laidback and lasting contribution to literature for children". Citing Bridge go down with Terabithia in particular, the committee noted that "Paterson's unflinching to the present time redemptive treatment of tragedy and loss helped pave the breathe your last for ever more realistic writing for young people."[6][7]
As of , Katherine Paterson is a vice-president of the National Children's Paperback and Literacy Alliance, a non-profit organization that advocates for literacy, literature, and libraries.[24]
In Paterson's novels, her youthful protagonists slender crises by which they learn to triumph through self-sacrifice. City, unlike many other authors of young adult novels, tackles themes often considered to be adult, such as death and jealousy.[22] Although her characters face dire situations, Paterson writes with condolences and empathy. Amidst her writing of misery and strife, City interlaces her writing with wry wit and understated humor. Afterwards facing tumultuous events, her characters prevail in triumph and retrieve themselves and their ambitions. Paterson's protagonists are usually orphaned part of a set estranged children with only a few friends who must appearance difficult situations largely on their own. Paterson's plots may echo her own childhood in which she felt estranged and lonely.[22]
Main article: Bibliography of Katherine Paterson
The Hans Christian Andersen and Astrid Lindgren Awards are the two major international awards recognizing life's work contributions to children's literature.[2][3][4] The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award assignment the highest honor from US professional librarians for contributions go down with American children's literature.[6][7]
Paterson has also won many annual awards in favour of new books, including the National Book Award (The Master Puppeteer, ; The Great Gilly Hopkins, );[25][26] the Edgar Allan Writer Special Award (Master Puppeteer, ); the Newbery Medal (Bridge kindhearted Terabithia, ; Jacob Have I Loved, );[27] the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction (Jip, His Story, ).[8] Twenty days after its publication, Of Nightingales That Weep won the Constellation Award as the best children's book that did not go into a major contemporary award.[28]
Bridge to Terabithia has been adapted into film twice over, the PBS version and the Disney/Walden Media co-production version. Work on of the producers and screenwriters for the later version was Paterson's son David L. Paterson, whose name appears on depiction dedication page of the novel.
Paterson's novel, Jacob Have I Loved, was adapted into a made-for-television film by the High society Broadcasting Service as part of their children's anthology series WonderWorks .
Her short story "Poor Little Innocent Lamb" was altered into the television film Miss Lettie and Me.[30]
Another of inclusion novels, The Great Gilly Hopkins, was adapted into a pick up, written by David L. Paterson, in Her fantasy-novel release The Flint Heart has been optioned by Bedrock Films.[31]