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Katherine Paterson
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From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 08:37:22 -0500
Jonathan Hunt has stated that on a personal reader response level, he found the characters in Bridge to Terabithia unsympathetic. And both Christine Hill and Maggie Bokelman have commented on Louise in Jacob, Have I Loved, who resonated so strongly with Christine's adolescent daughter and who is, as Maggie notes, caught up in the "extremely painful self?sorption that all young people experience, and the journey into adulthood that follows." Christine responded that Louise is perhaps "the first unreliable narrator in children's literature" in terms of how readers perceive her situtation through Louise's own eyes and how that perception begins to change.
This focus on these Paterson characters and reader's responses to them is intriguing. How often does our ability to at least connect with a character if not wholly emphathize, or at the least feel invested in the outcome of her or his life in the context of the story, influence our response to a book? To me, It seems both honest and courageous to write about child characters who aren't wholly likable and embracable--aren't we all that way?
In her article on Katherine Paterson in the Fall,1998, issue of Bookbird (which highlights Paterson and Tomi Ungerer, winner of the 1998 Hans Christian Andersen awards for writing and illustration, respectively), Karen Patricia Smith notes that "Katherine Paterson's work demonstrates the respect she holds for the young, their emotions, and the challenges they encounter. Referring to the universality of her books, her [Hans Christian Andersen Award] nomination states that her 'stories are usually abut misfit children, children who long for love, understanding, recognition and most of all want to belong to families or groups without giving up who they really are.' "
What about Katherine Paterson's characters in her novels? If they are "misfit" children, as some certainly seem to be, it seems that the longing for "love, understanding and recognition" potentially binds them not only to one another but to child and young adult readers.
Let's hear more about your responses, and young reader's responses, to her characters and stories.
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Thu 19 Aug 1999 08:37:22 AM CDT
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 08:37:22 -0500
Jonathan Hunt has stated that on a personal reader response level, he found the characters in Bridge to Terabithia unsympathetic. And both Christine Hill and Maggie Bokelman have commented on Louise in Jacob, Have I Loved, who resonated so strongly with Christine's adolescent daughter and who is, as Maggie notes, caught up in the "extremely painful self?sorption that all young people experience, and the journey into adulthood that follows." Christine responded that Louise is perhaps "the first unreliable narrator in children's literature" in terms of how readers perceive her situtation through Louise's own eyes and how that perception begins to change.
This focus on these Paterson characters and reader's responses to them is intriguing. How often does our ability to at least connect with a character if not wholly emphathize, or at the least feel invested in the outcome of her or his life in the context of the story, influence our response to a book? To me, It seems both honest and courageous to write about child characters who aren't wholly likable and embracable--aren't we all that way?
In her article on Katherine Paterson in the Fall,1998, issue of Bookbird (which highlights Paterson and Tomi Ungerer, winner of the 1998 Hans Christian Andersen awards for writing and illustration, respectively), Karen Patricia Smith notes that "Katherine Paterson's work demonstrates the respect she holds for the young, their emotions, and the challenges they encounter. Referring to the universality of her books, her [Hans Christian Andersen Award] nomination states that her 'stories are usually abut misfit children, children who long for love, understanding, recognition and most of all want to belong to families or groups without giving up who they really are.' "
What about Katherine Paterson's characters in her novels? If they are "misfit" children, as some certainly seem to be, it seems that the longing for "love, understanding and recognition" potentially binds them not only to one another but to child and young adult readers.
Let's hear more about your responses, and young reader's responses, to her characters and stories.
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Thu 19 Aug 1999 08:37:22 AM CDT
