Katherine Paterson

I think I could devote many posts to Katherine Paterson quotes.
In fact I have. (Type her name into my blog's search box, and you'll see what I mean.)

I was reminded of this just now when I saw Caroline Starr Rose's beautiful blog with another inspirational quote.

I'll wait while you click over there because it's not only inspirational to read, it's lovely to look at.

 This is one of my personal favorites:
"I think you tell your story and then the reader gets to decide what he or she will learn from your story. And if they don't want to learn anything from it, that's their choice."

- Katherine Paterson
from an NPR interview

And this:  Before the gates of excellence, the gods have placed sweat. –


She's always been a writing hero to me and to many others.
I have so many scribbled notes from things I've read and heard her say.

Now I need a beautiful picture to inspire us this weekend.
How about these- sunset on the Mississippi river- from my last visit "home."

Welcome to the world, BLUE BIRDS.

My friend Caroline Starr Rose's beautiful new middle-grade verse novel publishes today.

Thanks to her gracious publisher, I had a pre-publication sneak peak.

I've written about it HERE. But now you can read it everywhere!
Tell your library, your independent bookstore, your teacher friends. Such a good story.

In honor of all our books going out into the world this year, I'm borrowing Caroline's quote. I love this thought via Katherine Paterson.


Once a book is published, it no longer belongs to me. My creative task is done. The work now belongs to the creative mind of my readers. I had my turn to make of it what I could; now it is their turn. I have no more right to tell readers how they should respond to what I have written than they had to tell me how to write it. It’s a wonderful feeling when readers hear what I thought I was trying to say, but there is no law that they must. Frankly, it is even more thrilling for a reader to find something in my writing that I hadn’t until that moment known was there. But this happens because of who the reader is, not simply because of who I am or what I have done.

-Katherine Paterson, A Sense of Wonder: On Reading and Writing Books for Children


 

 (In honor of Caroline's new novel, I'll share bluebird art from Adolf Dehn,
"Winter Song," 

from a Christmas card I love.)

The Always Quotable

Katherine Paterson:

"I think you tell your story and then the reader gets to decide what he or she will learn from your story. And if they don't want to learn anything from it, that's their choice."

- Katherine Paterson
from an interview with NPR

(via Jan Fields' interesting newsletter this week)

I often post quotes from Katherine Paterson. CLICK HERE for a link to one I particularly like. Or type her name into my search box for even more inspiration.

Why Read?

While hanging out on Laurie Halse Anderson's excellent blog, perusing her advice on revision, I clicked over to her recommended link, a Washington Post article mostly about what kids are reading and why, or why not.

James Blasingame is an English professor at Arizona State, among other things. And he's reporting in from the recent National Council of Teachers of English conference. Great posting, including a couple of gems like this:

We read books for many reasons. Sometimes we read books to access information and to broaden our knowledge.
Sometimes we read books just for fun, to escape from the world for awhile and indulge our imaginations.
And sometimes we read to make sense of our lives, to better understand the world and our place in it.

And from one of my favorite writers of all-time:
Katherine Paterson, United States Library of Congress Living Legend Award winner, once explained that literature allows young people to prepare for life’s difficulties by experiencing them from the safe distance of reading.

The Safe Distance of Reading. Don't you just love that?


Here's hoping Santa brings you and yours lots of wonderful reading this holiday season!

Katherine Paterson, on Characters

There is, finally, something mysterious about the life of one's characters. In my secret hart, I almost believe that one of these days I'll meet Jesse Aarons walking toward me on a downtown street. I'll recognize him at once, although he will have grown to manhood, and I'll ask him what he's been doing in the years since he built that bridge across Lark Creek.

On second thought, I probably won't ask. I'll smile and he'll nod, but I won't pry. Years ago he let me eavesdrop on his soul, but that time is past. He's entitled to his privacy now. Still, I can't help wondering.

(Katherine Paterson, People I Have Known in The Writer, April 1987)

On Writing and Courage: Katherine Paterson

From my own notes upon hearing Katherine Paterson speak to readers, teachers, writers:
It's hard to choose what you are going to write about. Books are years in the making.
(You said it, Katherine!)

And from Writer Magazine:
 ...a book for young readers has to tell a story. This may seem self evident, but the truth is some people ignore it because plotting is very hard work. When I hear myself being introduced as a "great natural storyteller," it is all I can do to keep from leaping to my feet to object. "Great natural storytellers" don't spend countless days hewing a story line out of rock with a straight pin, now do they?

and this:

I will not take a young reader through a story and in the end abandon him. That is, I will not write a book that closes in despair. I cannot, will not, withhold from my young readers the harsh realities of human hunger and suffering and loss, but neither will I neglect to plant that stubborn seed of hope that has enabled our race to outlast wars and famines and the destruction of death.
  
Katherine Paterson. Creativity Limited, in The Writer, December 1980 
(treasures discovered deep in my own files)

I think I'm onto something here. A theme maybe?
Check out this post by literary agent Peter Knapp, quite beautiful and challenging to us writers. Courage, all! And thanks for sharing, Caroline Starr Rose.

http://writeoncon.com/08/13/courage-and-kid-lit/

 

My Favorite Banned Book

Actually there are a lot of them. But I've always treasured this story told by Katherine Paterson when she spoke to the fifth graders at the Baltimore school where I was a librarian.

Speaking about BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA which had just won the Newbery Medal, she talked about hope and sadness and death. I wish I could recall her exact quote, but I'll never forget the gist of her answer to a girl sitting right in front of her on the floor. The student was very sad about Leslie's death in the book. Katherine said to her (not an exact quote so please don't use it as such): There are worse things than losing a friend through death.

She went on to say friends could be lost forever and never celebrated, their stories never told again, simply by moving away, through a disagreement, a falling out.

Thanks to Caroline by Line for helping me remember that day with Katherine Paterson.
And for starting a conversation on her blog about the difficult things we choose to write.

Here's a quote about hope, now on Caroline's blog:

"I cannot, will not, withhold from my young readers the harsh realities of human hunger and suffering and loss, but neither will I neglect to plant that stubborn seed of hope that has enabled our race to outlast wars and famines and the destruction of death. If you think that this is the limitation that will keep me forever a writer for the young, perhaps it is. I don’t mind. I do what I can and do it joyfully.”

-Katherine Paterson, A SENSE OF WONDER: ON READING AND WRITING BOOKS FOR CHILDREN

Blogging after Resting and Rejuvenating?

Having been away from my computer for a few days, I'm back, and in keeping with my turning over a new, streamlined leaf this week, I cleaned up my blog look a tad. The book background was beginning to show up everywhere, so I reverted to my previous blog look.

Did anybody notice?

Also contemplating these two quotes swiped from Darcy Pattison's blog:

The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork (including writing) is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction of your artwork that soars. —
David Bayles & Ted Orland, Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

Before the gates of excellence, the gods have placed sweat. –
Katherine Paterson

(I've always loved that one from Katherine Paterson.)

Darcy titled her blog post Never Quit. To that I say, Amen...

Reading With Goodreads and Facebook

Today's New York Times, and not even in the Book Review section, has Motoko Rich writing about "The Book Club With Just One Member." On many levels this headline caught my eye. And how could I not read an essay that begins with a quote from the new Newbery winner, Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me. Miranda, the 11-year-old main character, has a favorite book which is entertwined throughout Stead's novel. She's read A Wrinkle in Time over and over, even feels it's her very own book, hers alone. "The truth is that I hate to think about other people reading my book.. It's like watching someone go through the box of private stuff that I keep under my bed."

Rich's essay ponders those of us who feel that possessiveness about the books we read and the ones who share their reading tastes via Book Clubs, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads. She makes a lot of thoughtful points, quotes from other of my favorite writers, even brings David Foster Wallace's books into the mix (along with Katherine Paterson and Lois Lowry).

One conclusion seems to be that there are books whose understanding is helped along by communal reading. Those challenging books (Wallace), the ones you never honestly got through in college (Ulysses). "Some books particularly lend themselves to collective reading--" she says, "partly, of course, because everybody is reading them."



I like the image on the New York Times' page. Reminds me of sitting in a tree reading Nancy Drew. Come to think of it, I can't remember ever wanting to discuss Nancy's latest escapade with too many kids. But I guess I outgrew that. Two-plus Book Clubs later, I've now pretty much stopped the communal discussions over a nice glass of chardonnay, but I do like hearing what others are reading and sensing the excitement. In fact, Rich acknowledges one obvious point- the more people talk about a book, the better it sells. "Some of the biggest sellers of recent years--Eat, Pray, Love...The Kite Runner...The Help-- were propelled by word of mouth."

OK, back later. After I update my Goodreads page.
;)



Related posts: Katherine Paterson

Lois Lowry

Introducing- Our New Ambassador!

Katherine Paterson was one of the first true stars of the children's book world I met as a librarian. She lived near my school and generously visited us twice. Once she had to cancel when she got the early morning call from the American Library Association that she'd won the Newbery and had to fly off for the announcement. She soon re-scheduled our visit, and it was pretty exciting to be a part of that celebratory season.

Although that was a while ago, each time I've seen her since, she's always been the same generous, bright, funny person you'd love to sit down and chat with over a cup of tea.

So the newspaper announcement this morning that she's the next National Ambassador for Young People's Literature just made my day. Be sure to click here for the article and read right to the end when she's asked "Don't you want to write for adults?" Her answer won't surprise children's authors one bit:

"...why would I want to write a book that would be remaindered in six weeks? My books have gone on and on, and my readers, if they love the book, they will read it and reread it. I have the best readers in the world.”


Related post: Writing Tips

Writing Tips

Some quick tips for finding time to write when children and other nuisances (dogs, work, laundry= all those things we love but cut into time we'd like to spend with pen and ink) get in the way. This blogger always comes through with good writing advice.

I love this quote Kristi found from one of my favorites, Katherine Paterson.

“As I look back on what I have written, I can see that the very persons who have taken away my time are those who have given me something to say.”

I think that means our little children (and maybe our dogs and our laundry) are a great writing resource.