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Preacher's Boy
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From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 08:46:27 -0500
Dean Schneider wrote about Katherine Paterson's newest book, Preacher's Boy (which is released this month):
"As with all of Katherine Paterson's work, this is a full-fledged story peopled with full-blooded characters. It is not a dogmatic tract meant to preach a lesson. If there is a lesson or a spirit about life, it comes from a story well told."
Paterson, like all great, or even good, writers for the young does ineed focus on story over message, and her characters, as so many have already eloquently commented, are the forces that drive those stories.
In her Newbery acceptance speech for Jacob, Have I Loved (reprinted in The Horn Book Magazine, August, 1981), Paterson relates an exchange she had with "an earnest young reporter." "[He] asked me: 'What are you trying to do when you write for chldren?' 'I'm trying to write as well as I possibly can,' I answered. He thought I hadn't understood his question. 'No, no,' he said. 'What I mean is, what is your philosophy of writing for children? Isn't there some moral you wish to instill in your young reders?' 'I'm trying,' I said, 'to write for my readers the best story, the truest story, of which I am capable.' "
"The truest story" is what stands out for me in that comment, and in Paterson's work. Jonathan Hunt has pointed to the allusions and thematic connections that some of Paterson's work makes to legends
(grail qusest) and to fantasy stories (Narnia) (and, of course one can find Biblical themes) and wondered if she has ever considered writing fantasy. My own response to that question is that whatever genre in which she would choose to write, I trust her to be true--to the emotional landscape of childhood, and to the hearts and minds of children.
We've heard many comments on Paterson's characters, especially Louise in Jacob, Have I Loved, Gilly Hopkins in The Great Gilly Hopkins, and, to a lesser extent, Jess in Bridge to Terabithia and Jip in Jip, His Story. What else strikes you about these and other Paterson characters, or the impact of her stories.
The other day Kathy Isaacs wrote: "I have a vivid memory of two sixth grade boys, the afternoon of the last?y-of-school field day, sitting on a hillside apart from the play, one earnestly, and at length, filling the other in on the end of Jip's story which the second had missed hearing when he missed school that morning. These boys (and their classmates) loved that character. They wanted to know more. I'm sure they would be just as thrilled to have a grown-up Jip turn up much later, quietly, in another book as I was to find Lyddie in that story."
I love picturing that scene of two children wholly embracing a story-?coming thoroughly invested in and caring about what happens to the characters. Who else has stories or comments to share?
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Wed 25 Aug 1999 08:46:27 AM CDT
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 08:46:27 -0500
Dean Schneider wrote about Katherine Paterson's newest book, Preacher's Boy (which is released this month):
"As with all of Katherine Paterson's work, this is a full-fledged story peopled with full-blooded characters. It is not a dogmatic tract meant to preach a lesson. If there is a lesson or a spirit about life, it comes from a story well told."
Paterson, like all great, or even good, writers for the young does ineed focus on story over message, and her characters, as so many have already eloquently commented, are the forces that drive those stories.
In her Newbery acceptance speech for Jacob, Have I Loved (reprinted in The Horn Book Magazine, August, 1981), Paterson relates an exchange she had with "an earnest young reporter." "[He] asked me: 'What are you trying to do when you write for chldren?' 'I'm trying to write as well as I possibly can,' I answered. He thought I hadn't understood his question. 'No, no,' he said. 'What I mean is, what is your philosophy of writing for children? Isn't there some moral you wish to instill in your young reders?' 'I'm trying,' I said, 'to write for my readers the best story, the truest story, of which I am capable.' "
"The truest story" is what stands out for me in that comment, and in Paterson's work. Jonathan Hunt has pointed to the allusions and thematic connections that some of Paterson's work makes to legends
(grail qusest) and to fantasy stories (Narnia) (and, of course one can find Biblical themes) and wondered if she has ever considered writing fantasy. My own response to that question is that whatever genre in which she would choose to write, I trust her to be true--to the emotional landscape of childhood, and to the hearts and minds of children.
We've heard many comments on Paterson's characters, especially Louise in Jacob, Have I Loved, Gilly Hopkins in The Great Gilly Hopkins, and, to a lesser extent, Jess in Bridge to Terabithia and Jip in Jip, His Story. What else strikes you about these and other Paterson characters, or the impact of her stories.
The other day Kathy Isaacs wrote: "I have a vivid memory of two sixth grade boys, the afternoon of the last?y-of-school field day, sitting on a hillside apart from the play, one earnestly, and at length, filling the other in on the end of Jip's story which the second had missed hearing when he missed school that morning. These boys (and their classmates) loved that character. They wanted to know more. I'm sure they would be just as thrilled to have a grown-up Jip turn up much later, quietly, in another book as I was to find Lyddie in that story."
I love picturing that scene of two children wholly embracing a story-?coming thoroughly invested in and caring about what happens to the characters. Who else has stories or comments to share?
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Wed 25 Aug 1999 08:46:27 AM CDT
