Katherine Paterson was born October 31, 1932, in Qing Jiang, China to George Raymond and Mary Goetchius Womeldorf, Presbyterian missionaries. As a child, Paterson was often read to by her mother and she taught herself how to read before she entered school. During the next few years, Paterson moved fifteen times to places such as Shanghai, China; Richmond, Virginia; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Because she moved around so much, Paterson often felt like an outsider, much like the children who appear in many of her novels.

Paterson attended King College in Bristol, Tennessee where she received an A.B. in English Literature. After college, Paterson taught briefly in an elementary school in Lovettsville, Virginia, before returning to Richmond, Virginia, where she earned a masters degree from the Presbyterian School for Christian Education. Upon graduation, Paterson became a missionary in Japan, working there from 1957 to 1961. She met...