BOOK GIVEAWAY CONTEST: KATHERINE PATERSON'S MEMOIR, "STORIES OF MY LIFE"

    

     If you read my blog every so often, you probably already know that my friend Michele and I were fortunate enough to meet the one and only Katherine Paterson on an afternoon in September.  Also, that afterward we were disappointed - horrible ingrates that we are - because she clearly didn't want to talk with us about her books while we were there.  Moreover, that Michele and I afterwards put our heads together and came up with a belated list of questions to ask her, which I emailed to her.  Additionally, that I received no response for weeks.  And finally, that KP ended up responding to my email after all, telling us she didn't have time to answer our questions, but that she would try to send us "something" instead.  Which turned out to be two copies of her recently-published memoir, STORIES OF MY LIFE.

  I've finished reading my copy now, and here's my review: many stories, much life.  I thought I knew my fair share about KP before, having been more-or-less obsessed with her and her books for many years, and now HAVING BEEN TO HER HOME.  (Okay, I confess: when I used her bathroom I was sorely tempted to rifle through her medicine cabinet and steal a KP-purchased Q-tip or something.  But my conscience won out.  Barely.)

     Well, it turns out that I didn't know much about her before after all, and I know a lot more now - all of it G-rated (she was a minister's wife, not a Hollywood starlet), much of it frank nonetheless and tinged with self-deprecating humor.  There's quite a bit of old-Southern-family history; quite a bit more of globetrotting-missionary-parents history, including her own early childhood in China; a very satisfying collection of family photos; and a respectable dose of her four years living as a missionary in Japan and her ensuing 50 years of married life, children, pets, and writing career.  And the book ends with a deeply poignant description of her beloved husband's final illness and death, and what she learned from living through those experiences.
     And now I want to give this book away, and I can't really explain why except to say that I think KP would want me to.  If you look at her Facebook page, you'll see immediately that she is (at 84) a fully engaged citizen of the world, and that sharing is what she does and what she approves of.  I don't think I'll read KP's memoir again unless someone decides to give me a pop quiz on her life, which seems fairly unlikely, so I will happily share my read-but-pristine copy with a lucky winner and fellow Patersonphile.  Here's the deal:  leave a comment on this post naming your favorite Katherine Paterson book, with a brief explanation as to what makes that book stand out for you.  I'll choose my favorite comment and ship the book to the commenter, no matter where he or she lives. The contest begins now and ends next Sunday, the 29th, at 11 p.m. Eastern time.  Please enter, and tell your friends about it!  I hate running giveaway contests and getting only a handful of entries!!
     GO.

A SAGA ENDS

     I got a package from Katherine Paterson this week.  As you may recall, she told me in her most recent email that she couldn't answer all my questions right now, but that she'd try to send "something" to me and Michele before leaving for Cuba.  This is what the "something" turned out to be:

     Two copies of her recent memoir (although she says in the book that it's not a memoir; it's just a collection of stories from her life, as per the title).  One copy for me, one for Michele, obviously.  No accompanying note or inscription, but now I'm being greedy, right?  All she signed up for in the first place was giving us tea.  She's not going to answer our specific questions, but, to tell you the truth, I started reading the book yesterday (hence the bookmark in the one on the right), and it does reveal a lot of the things we wondered about.  Not her recipe for scones, but there I go being greedy again!  And so here is where the saga ends.  And I am satisfied. 

SOME PRE-NEWS, PERHAPS??

     A couple of weeks ago I posted here about my tea with my hero Katherine Paterson - both what a memorable experience it was, and at the same time, how disappointing it was not to be able to talk with her about her work.  What I did not post was the fact that after The Visit, my compadre Michele and I put our heads together, discussed our mutual frustration, and concluded: how could it hurt to send her a list of some of the questions we wished we'd been able to ask while we were there?  The worst she can do is ignore us.  She can't rescind the tea and scones.  So we each compiled a list of our Top Four questions, and I emailed it to KP on September 30th, telling her how honored we were to have met her and how much we would appreciate it if she could take the time to answer any or all of our questions.  I got no response.  I was still glad that Michele and I had taken some initiative, rather than just ineffectually stewing, but it was clear that our intuition had been right - she really DIDN'T want to discuss her books with us!  But we were no worse off than we had been before we tried. 
     And then last night, to my enormous surprise, I got a response to my email.  It consisted of two words and a punctuation mark: "Heaven forfend!"  Well, I thought. The long silence had sent a clear enough message all by itself, had it not?  The expression of horror to top it off seemed fairly unnecessary.  I just sucked it up (because, hello?  THIS IS KATHERINE PATERSON dissing me!!) and answered: "Oh.  Well, we thought it couldn't hurt to ask!  Have a wonderful trip to Havana."  (As I mentioned in my previous post, this intrepid woman is traveling to Cuba for an International Board on Books for Young People conference at the end of this month.)  And that was obviously going to be that.
     This morning she answered me back. "You're right," she said.  And she asked for my mailing address, and said that while she doesn't have enough time right now to answer all our questions, she'll try to get something out to me and Michele before she leaves.
     Stay tuned!!!

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune
Without the words
And never stops at all...

         - Emily Dickinson


We can still hop.

         - note from Lyddie's semi-literate mother, LYDDIE (by Katherine Paterson, of course)

SPEAKING OF BANNED BOOKS, I JUST MET KATHERINE PATERSON

     Yes, that's actually me, sitting next to Katherine Paterson on her couch.  And the connection to Banned Books Week is that two of KP's books, BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA and THE GREAT GILLY HOPKINS, are on the American Library Association's list of the 100 most banned books (past and present) in this country.  KP wears this distinction as a badge of honor.  Full disclosure: I didn't earn the privilege of sitting next to this amazing woman on her couch; I bought it.  I was the highest bidder this spring for the "Tea With Katherine Paterson" prize in an auction sponsored by the Vermont College of Fine Arts, of which she is a board member.  But at least I won fair and square, and didn't have to lie, cheat or steal in order to spend three hours in the company of my writing hero.
     The prize was tea (the meal, not just the beverage) for me and one other person, so I enlisted Michele, my trusty friend and fellow writer, to take a one-night road trip with me from her home on Cape Cod to Montpelier, Vermont, where KP lives.  But KP has only lived in Montpelier (the state capital) for about two years.  Before then she lived with her family in Barre, the next town over, for 29 years - by far the longest she's ever lived in any one place - and Barre is clearly where her heart lies.   Her husband (recently deceased, hence KP's move to smaller living quarters in Montpelier) was a minister at the Barre Presbyterian Church.  The children's room in the Barre Public Library is named after her.
     Barre is a quirky place.  It bills itself as the Granite Capital of the World, and a short walk along the main street will bring you to oddities like a giant granite zipper in the ground

and an outdoor granite chair for your comfort (and ours).

 

     But Michele and I didn't take that little walking tour until the next day, after we spent the night at the wonderful Maplecroft B&B (if you're ever in Barre, make sure you check it out!)  KP Day was the day before, September 18th.  After our tea (which featured homemade scones) and chat, KP took us on a driving tour of Barre, as she had told us she'd like to do.  She pointed out some of the highlights, like this statue of the poet Robert Burns

 

 

and this World War I memorial to fallen soldiers, known locally (as KP gleefully informed us, and for obvious reasons) as Naked Neil:

 

 

     It was a lovely afternoon.  We got to know KP's adorable companion Pixie

 

 

and to spend some time with the very gracious KP herself.

 

 

 

     And yet it's taken me almost two weeks to put together a post about my pilgrimage.   Here's the thing.  I'm torn between feeling awed and grateful at having met KP (and still not quite believing that I really did), and feeling disappointed that the three of us didn't get to talk about her work.  I guess I was expecting that the conversation would flow naturally in that direction, but it never did, and Michele and I discovered afterward that we shared the distinct impression that KP didn't want the conversation to flow the way Michele and I were hoping it would.  That it would have been rude for us to ask questions about her books and her writing career.  In fact, when at one point Michele was brave enough to ask whether KP was planning to write any more novels, I almost gasped.  What if she's offended by the question?  What if she throws us out after we drove all this way? 

      Of course, she didn't throw us out, and if she was offended, she was too polite to show it.  Her answer was basically that she doesn't know whether she can do it without the support of her team.  Her agent has retired; the only editor with whom she's ever worked, Virginia Buckley, has retired; and her husband and biggest supporter is no longer here to cheer her along.

     But the rest of our questions remained unasked.  As Michele later said, she and I were apparently both just too well brought up.  We were taught to follow the host's lead, and that's what we did, especially because the host was one of the most revered and accomplished writers for young people in the world.  But of course, that's also why we wished we could have asked her more questions. 

     So there you have it.   I wish I had more news to share with you, but instead, all I have is these photos and the memory of a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  And I can pass along KP's exhortation for this week:  Celebrate banned books!!  







NEVER THOUGHT I'D GET THE CHANCE...

...to meet my #1 Kidlit Writing Hero, but barring something unforeseen, it's going to happen.  I'M GOING TO HAVE TEA AT HER HOUSE, you all!! Okay, first let's see if you can guess who it is.  This person:
     - was born in China between the two World Wars;
     - was a teacher in Japan;
     - has won (among many other awards) two Newbery Medals and two National Book Awards;
     - was recently a U.S. National Ambassador for Children's Literature; and
     - is (I just discovered) active on Facebook!

     It's Katherine Paterson, and here's how this came about.  In June I saw on someone's website that the MFA program of the Vermont College of Fine Arts was going to be hosting an auction.  Just out of curiosity, I looked to see what the prizes were, and saw to my amazement that one of them - the only one, as far as I was concerned - was Tea with Katherine Paterson (who's on the VCFA Board of Trustees) at her house.  I mean, how many world-famous writers do you know who would open up their homes to complete strangers and serve them tea??  So I pledged an absolutely insane amount of money, because talk about a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!  And I won the auction, because luckily for me, no one else seemed to be willing to spend quite so much of his/her children's inheritance as I was.  Sorry, kids.  Someday maybe you'll understand.

     Katherine Paterson is who I want to be when I grow up.  She's been publishing books since the 1970s, and they've been delighting and inspiring me for twenty years or more.  And I heard her deliver a keynote address years ago at some conference or other, and she was exactly as awesome as I expected her to be, which is an extremely high bar to meet.  She signed books afterward, and when it was my turn to get her autograph and I asked her if I could give her a hug (yes, yes, I'm mortified that I did this, okay?), she didn't bat an eye, just smiled, stood up, came out from behind the desk, and hugged me back.
     Paterson has written picture books, a memoir, some essays and other nonfiction, and 16 novels for young people covering an enormous variety of subjects, both historical and contemporary.  The common thread between almost all of the novels is that her protagonists are outsiders and sometimes outcasts.  They're displaced persons, uncomfortable in their surroundings and, often, in their own skins.  Paterson understands them all so deeply that she makes the reader love them even though they don't (yet) know how to love themselves.  Paterson's background is intensely Christian (her parents were missionaries, her husband was a minister, she has an advanced degree in Christian education).  She doesn't ever use her books to shove her faith at you, but what she does do, over and over, is beautifully, credibly illustrate both the pain of isolation and the power of redemption.  Her books have brought solace to kids all over the world, and are very close to my heart.
     And in September I'm going to meet this woman and spend a few hours in her company and bask in her glow.  And then I'm going to come back home and write about every last detail.  So stay tuned.  And follow her on Facebook!  Because, as if all her other accomplishments weren't enough, apparently she's tech-savvy too!

p.s.  No, I'm sorry, you can't have tea with Katherine Paterson, because (as I might have mentioned)  I WON THAT, but maybe if you're lucky (and also cool with hijacking your family's financial security), you can have lunch with A.S. King: https://www.facebook.com/as.king.author/photos/a.286927082468.144637.45802717468/10153025337017469/?type=1&theater.  I guess writers eating meals with their slavering fans is a thing now! Go for it!

P IS FOR KATHERINE PATERSON

         I don't remember when or how I first discovered the books of Katherine Paterson.  I know that it was a very long time ago, and I know that she is the author whose work first introduced me to the concept of historical fiction written for children.  Think about it.  Aside from Bible stories, weren't almost all the books you read as a child set in a time contemporary to when the book was written?  I know that the ones I read were.  At most, they were set during the time when the author was a child - not hundreds of years earlier.  But here was a children's author, skipping around lightly through the centuries, through countries and cultures, seeming for all the world as if she belonged wherever she landed.  And it changed everything about writing for me.  If I hadn't encountered her work, I would never have dreamed about setting the first book I wrote for children in Venice, in the year 1574.  Katherine Paterson opened that door for me, earning my eternal gratitude.
     But gratitude wasn't the only emotion she shook loose in me.  There was also admiration for her gifts as a writer, appreciation for her humor, and awe for her courage.  Her best-known book, BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA, was the very first American children's book to feature as a main character a child who died in an accident during the course of the story.  Public reaction was very strong; many people were horrified at the thought that child readers would be exposed to a tragedy they wouldn't be able to handle.  But Paterson was adamant that BRIDGE was a story that needed to be told.  She knew from personal experience that sudden tragedies do occur in the lives of children; the idea for the book originated with the accidental death of her young son's playmate, and she knew that similar experiences might happen to any child.  The book was widely banned for years.  As most of you probably already know, eventually the tide turned, and Paterson ended up winning one of her two Newbery Medals for BRIDGE.
     But it's the book that won her the other Newbery which resonates most deeply with me, and that still remains my most beloved children's book of all time.  JACOB HAVE I LOVED is the story of Louise, known by the unbeautiful nickname Wheeze, who lives with her family on a little spit of land in the Chesapeake Bay during what seems to be the 1940's.  Everyone on the island is involved in one way or another with the fishing industry, and Paterson brings vividly to life the pervasive feeling that on the island, there is no clear demarcation between land and water.  The only person who seems to be completely land-bound is Wheeze's twin sister, Caroline.  In fact, although Wheeze and Caroline share a room, they seem to occupy two completely different worlds.  Wheeze is rough and tomboyish, and feels as much at home on the water as she does on land.  Caroline is delicately beautiful, as well as exceptionally gifted.  Even the most workworn residents of the island recognize that Caroline's musical talents lift her far out of their ordinary realm and out into the wider world.  Wheeze recognizes Caroline's gift too, but is also victim to the complacency and self-centeredness that come along with it.  Wheeze has nothing, Caroline has everything, and as much as Wheeze tries to resist, envy eats away at her heart until she hates both Caroline and herself.  But there is something even worse in store for her.  The girls' mentally ill grandmother, who seems to have the ability to see directly into Wheeze's heart and to revel in her despair, gleefully quotes from the Bible to her: "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated."  Wheeze looks up the quote to find out who spoke that line, and sees that it was God.  Wheeze is the bad twin.  God loves Caroline, but hates Wheeze.
     Paterson has been married to a minister (now retired) for some sixty years now, and her own faith is deep, but she doesn't shout about it in her books; she wears it lightly.  That's probably why it cuts so deep.  She embodies the maxim of walking humbly with one's God.  JACOB HAVE I LOVED is permanently wrapped around my heart, but there are so many other books of Paterson's that I love too.  Consistently, she roots for the outcast, the underdog, the one who feels unloved.  She forces her readers to see them and care about them.  She is an ambassador of empathy to the world, and the world has made an effort to repay her.  She has won just about every prize and award in the field of children's literature,and has richly earned all of them.
     This astonishing woman is now 81 years old.  She is a beacon of light in my life, and always will be.  Thank you, Katherine Paterson.

Happy Anniversary!

Well, not quite.  In two days it will be the one-month anniversary of the date I started this blog.  But I thought I'd celebrate a little early by posting a tribute to a few of my alltime favorite young-adult authors and their books.  To begin with, no one's body of work has inspired and moved me like Katherine Paterson's.  Over thirty years ago, she courageously opened doors that so many authors have since walked through and pushed open even wider.  She writes about the outsider, and does it from the inside - from the soul.  To me, her most astonishing feat of heroism is "Jacob Have I Loved."   Then, Laurie Halse Anderson's "Wintergirls"  weaves a spell that seems to me must be witchcraft - but she is a white witch, and her goal is to erase some of the world's darkness, not add to it.  And then there's Angela Johnson's "The First Part Last" - the exquisite story of a boy becoming a man by falling in love with his child.  These authors are among my heroes, and the novels I've mentioned, with their unforgettable protagonists and language that cuts to the core, have widened and deepened my world.  I hope that if you haven't yet read them, you will soon.  Happy Anniversary, and, I hope, many more to come.