If the American author Katherine Paterson had been writing a century ago, her evident Christian commitment would not, of course, have been anything out of the ordinary. Instead it would have been the expected norm, with a large area of common ground known to exist between the writer, her readers and her reviewers. But how does an author deal with such a commitment now, when the common assumptions are not nearly so widespread, and to express them explicitly may alienate rather than attract?… Looking a...

[Jones]: Your first three books are set in feudal Japan. Why did you choose historical settings for your first three novels? [Paterson]: For one thing, it's interesting. For another, if you have trouble plotting as I do, history is a great help. You have all of these wonderful events happening in history and you can weave your story in and out of them. Historical settings are fascinating and helpful. That's why I use them. (p. 192)

In Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom, as in much of her previous work, Katherine Paterson writes about the difficult but enlightening processes through which young people who are prematurely left to their own resources become acquainted with the compromises and obligations that are necessary to survival in the adult world…. [The constants in her work] are the sensitivity, humor and clarity with which Paterson considers the many nuances of her central theme. Paterson treads a fine line between "ju...

In the years since turning from her earlier, Japan-based novels (most notably the award-winning The Master Puppeteer), Katherine Paterson has created a handful of engagingly rakish young Americans. The two mavericks of Bridge to Terabithia and the incorrigible title character of The Great Gilly Hopkins are spunky, independent, and sharply observed. Both books won several kinds of prizes each, but my own private prize goes to Gilly—always a foster child, never a daughter. I'd adopt her any day....

The exotic location and the distance in time make [the sentiments of Of Nightingales That Weep] palatable—just. It has something of the formality and simplicity of a retold folk tale. Its moral message is clear: that beauty is skin-deep. The underlying theme is derived from the concept of loyalty and the ways in which it can be expressed. Takiko, daughter of a samurai, is lady-in-waiting to Princess Aoi when she becomes infatuated with a warrior from a rival clan. The subsequent story involved slaugh...

[Of Nightingales that weep] could satisfy adolescents and adults alike with its exotic flavor and mature handling of character…. The unfamiliar pattern of events and the alien concepts of love, loyalty and ceremony which guide the characters are made clear in a story based on scholarship and on knowledge of the country whose contours and vegetation are skilfully used as background to a deliberate, convoluted narrative. (p. 3066) Margery Fisher, in her Growing Point, March, 1977.

Katherine's knack for telling anecdotes is part of her gift as a writer. As you get to know her, you realize that the quick wit and strong loyalties with which she endows her characters are qualities that she herself possesses and extends to her family, friends, and the people she works with—even chance strangers…. (p. 368) Every time I reread one of Katherine's novels, I find something new of value. Most recently I became aware of her abiding sympathy for the underdog, the lowly...

The historical and cultural details [in Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom] are vivid, the book giving a great deal of information about [China] as well as about the Heavenly Kingdom and its warriors. It follows the lives of Wang Lee and Mei Lin as they participate (separately or together) in military marches, battles, and camp life, concluding with their union, at the close of the book, and their settlement into the ancestral hut of Wang Lee's family. This is a fascinating story, and well-told; if it do...

Katherine Paterson, the author of several distinguished novels for young readers, here presents a collection of nine short stories [Angels and Other Strangers]…. Besides being entertaining, these tender stories remind us of what Christmas is all about—tolerance, forgiveness, love, patience, generosity, kindness, faith. Most seem intended for adults, although two come quite close to being genuine children's stories—"Many Happy Reruns," in which a young girl runs to t...

[In Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom] Wang and Mei Lin are swept into the marches and battles of the Taiping and experience an endless parade of death and violence. Separated during the course of the war campaigns, their ultimate meeting and marriage seems almost an anticlimax after the fearful ordeals they have endured. The book portrays a sweeping panorama of human experience during a bitter period of Chinese history, but Wang and Mei Lin emerge less as real people than as pawns flung hither and thither by ...

[In Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom Wang Lee's] rise and fall and his recapture by the kidnappers while on a spying mission are stark and gripping; his ecstasy and growing disillusionment as the killings increase and spread to civilians in the name of peace are well conveyed. More closely bound to specific events and causes than Paterson's Japanese historic fiction, this book will have to be introduced. A "Note to the Reader" provides some background information about the events a...

[Jesse and Leslie] create a wilderness hideaway kingdom, the "Terabithia" of the title … It lacks the elaboration of earlier childhood fantasy, perhaps to indicate they're already growing past the possibility of easy escape. The diction they adopt in their private principality may make some young readers uncomfortable…. The author is at the top of her form in creating the uninspiring round of home and school. Jess contemplates, like most of his readers, that he may have be...

Paterson's well-tuned, sentimental Christmas stories [in Angels and Other Strangers] seem less well suited to a children's book than to a family magazine, especially a church magazine—and indeed the flap tells us that they were originally read in Christmas Eve church services by the author's minister husband. Of the nine, three effect epiphanies of sorts in church…. [Several] set up encounters between comfortable middle-class Protestants and others who are poor, black, and...

With her gifts of insight and compassion [Katherine Paterson in Angels and Other Strangers] weaves stories about miracles of the Christmas season—miracles that take place on a truly human level. Each story is based on the Christian message of the birth of Christ and the significance that message takes on for the characters. She writes of the poor, the desolate, and the lonely as well as of the arrogant, the complacent, and the proud…. The stories are deeply moving and filled with humor. They a...

[In Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom] Paterson uses 15-year-old Wang Lee's experiences over a four-year period as a device to express China's political turmoil during the mid-nineteenth century…. [While] Paterson bases her novel on actual history, she fails to take full advantage of the dramatic potential of her material, relying instead on some blatant contrivances to further the plot and letting the narrative bog down amidst sermonic, confusing descriptions of Heavenly philosophy. Never...

With dexterity, the author of Bridge to Terabithia … creates nine insightful stories [in Angels and Other Strangers] that stir Katherine (Womeldorf) Paterson 1932– Photograph by Rosalind Anglin. Courtesy of E. P. Duttonthe emotions while reflecting the joy of the Christmas season…. [These] tales celebrate the birth of Jesus through the loneliness, fears, hopes, and simple beliefs of men, women, and children but never lap...

Like intricate embroidery, [The Master Puppeteer] has deftly woven threads of several patterns that combine to make a cohesive and dramatic whole. The setting, as in other of [Paterson's] books, is feudal Japan; the milieu is the closed and intricate world of the puppet theater; the contrapuntal plot thread is the mysterious bandit who operates as an Osakan Robin Hood…. The plot is skilfully constructed, the characters are strong, and the historical background is as interesting as the details ...

Making economical use of detail to set scene and atmosphere [in The Master Puppeteer], the author has chosen a period of lawlessness when Japan's old samurai tradition was dying and set against the teamwork and discipline of the puppeteers. Many of the themes in the The Sign of the Chrysanthemum … and Of Nightingales That Weep … reappear in this novel which should be very popular for its combination of excellent writing and irresistible intrigue. (p. 117) Dora Jean Young, i...

Osaka in the 1700s and the desperate plight of the impoverished Japanese are the chief elements in a brilliant novel by [Katherine Paterson]…. She offers not only a compelling drama but engrossing details on the art of puppetry…. ["The Master Puppeteer"] is swift and exciting…. (p. 85) Jean Mercier, in Publishers Weekly (reprinted from the April 19, 1976, issue of Publishers Weekly by permission of the critic, published by R. R. Bowker Company, a Xerox company...

Critics and the many readers who have praised Paterson's previous books will probably mark [Angels and Other Strangers] A +. Each story concerns a surprising spiritual gift bestowed during the Christmas season to people who need it desperately…. [The] stories star entirely different characters and situations, making up a group of impressive entertainments, written with warmth and style. A review of "Angels and Other Strangers," in Publishers Weekly, Vol. 216, No. 13,...