VERMONT VOICES: Katherine Paterson
Some of Katherine’ s book covers.( Courtesy Katherine Paterson)
Katherine: Oh, yes.
Megan: I like that you don’ t shy away from the tough things that happen in life. Just because you’ re writing a children’ s book doesn’ t mean that you sugarcoat everything.
Katherine: The thing that gets me is that so many adults have forgotten how intensely they felt things as children. I was at a gathering of adults, and one woman got up, and she was furious with me. She was talking about The Great Gilly Hopkins, and she said,“ This book is too intense for children, how dare you?” I had just gotten a letter from a teacher enclosing a book report by the“ bad boy” in the class, and he said,“ This book is a miracle. Mrs. Paterson knows exactly how children feel.” Yes, because I felt that intensely as a child. That child is still a living part of me. I feel so sad for adults who have thrown away or hidden that child.
It’ s something of a miracle to ME that the deepest part of me can connect with the deepest part of someone else. That’ s the great privilege of being a writer, and so I never want to give less than the deepest part of myself. I have often said that I feel like books can be a rehearsal for what you’ re going to meet in life. When people say,“ I’ ve given your book to a child who’ s grieving,” my first reaction is,“ too late”. I want the child to have the book and be able to remember how Jess felt and know that it was all right for them to feel that way.
When I go into a classroom, I say,“ Now, your teacher may have told you the message in this book, but that’ s not really the message. You’ ve got to remember what she said for the test, but what you need to know is, if there is a message in this book for you, that’ s fine. If there’ s no message, that’ s fine too. You get to choose.” My job is to write the best, the truest story I can, and the reader’ s job is to decide what to take away from it.
Megan: Do you find that there’ s some piece of your personal life in all your books?
Katherine: My raw material is always myself. It doesn’ t necessarily mean that it’ s going to be something like my son’ s best friend dying or me having cancer, or in the case of Gilly
Hopkins, my husband and I were asked to be temporary foster parents, and the book came out of that. Where else am I going to find anything that really matters, except within myself? Very often, it’ s a question that I’ m tackling for myself as I write the book.
Megan: Was it surprising to you when people started relating to your work?
Katherine: Oh, yes. The first book I ever wrote, I was asked to write by the Presbyterian Church. The reason I wrote it was because one of my professors in graduate school stopped me one day and asked,“ Have you ever thought of being a writer?” I’ m a reader. I graduated with a degree in English literature, so I know what good writing is. I was appalled at the idea that she thought I should be a writer. I said,“ No, I wouldn’ t want to add another mediocre writer to the world.” She said,“ Maybe that is what God is calling you to be.” I didn’ t become a writer then, but she eventually got me that first writing job for the church. I didn’ t know I was going to love writing.
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