From: CFWOHL at aol.com <CFWOHL>
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1999 19:35:59 EDT

Sorry to be late in responding to all the interesting e-mails about Katherine Paterson. I have been on vacation and unplugged.

I have been a reader of Paterson's work since she started publishing. I've also had the pleasure --and the good luck -- of working with her (in the marketing and promotion of her books) in the early years.

I read PREACHERS BOY in galleys on an airplane. The young girl sitting next to me noticed I was reading a children's book. She showed me the one she was reading and asked about mine. I closed the book and let her read the cover.

"Katherine Paterson" she said and nodded. "I'll get to read her next year, in fourth grade."

I commented that she had a lot to look forward to. We talked -- passenger to passenger -- for a while. Then she asked what the book was about. I offered to read aloud to her -- as long as it would be okay with her fourth-grade teacher. Getting a head start on the class and all. (At this point, her father offered me cash)

Melissa (my seatmate) laughed out loud several times during the first and second chapters -- that was all we had time for. She was absolutely caught up in the characters and the story, the place and the time -- but, for her, the biggest hold was the humor.

Katherine Paterson is certainly all the wonderful things you've written about
-- AND she is also (in some books) a very funny writer.

Lauren L. Wohl
Received on Mon 30 Aug 1999 06:35:59 PM CDT