She believes that adults who write for children bear a two-edged responsibility. They must set before their readers solid fare, books with serious, moral themes. At the same time, they must keep feeding the fragile flame of hope that life, despite its crushing accoutrements, is exhilarating, is rich, is joyous.
Katherine Paterson was born of American missionary parents, George Raymond and Mary Goetchius Womeldorf, in Tsing-Tsiang Pu, China, on 31 October 1932, the third of five children. Twice the family was forced by the exigencies of war to return to the United States, the second time permanently.
Moving about between China and various locations in Virginia, North Carolina, and West Virginia, the young Paterson experienced a variety of cultures and almost continual change. Before she graduated summa cum laude from King College in Bristol, Tennessee, in 1954, she had attended thirteen schools. In 1957 she received an M.A. in English Bible from the Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Virginia. Though as a child living in China she had hated and feared the Japanese, as an adult she wished to go back there to live.
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