Katherine Paterson

Today I came across a book entitled The Light of the World. It's a picture book about the life of Jesus, written by Katherine Paterson, and illustrated by Francois Roca. Paterson is the award-winning author of A Bridge to Teribithia, Jacob Have I Loved, and many other books. One recent book is about the famous Bread and Roses strike in 1912, which I only learned about last month, from a different source.

Paterson's a Presbyterian. The jacket blurb for The Light of the World quotes her: "The challenge for those of us who care about our faith and about a hurting world is to tell stories which will carry the words of grace and hope in their bones and sinews and not wear them like fancy dress." I haven't read any of her books, but I did see the recent adaptation of Teribithia and was moved by it. I wasn't aware of her religious background: this quote puts a new slant on the film for me. I do appreciate stories that address grace and hope, not lightly or cheaply, but in the context of profound human pain.

Looks like she's like Madeline L'Engle in that she's a thoughtful, complex Christian writer whose YA books have been banned and railed against by certain conservative Christian moralists. Good for her.

(I don't know if Teribithia counts as fantasy or not, but it's close enough for me to post about it on this blog.)