One of the most respected contemporary authors of young adult literature, Katherine Paterson was born Katherine Womeldorf on October 31, 1932, to Christian missionary parents in Tsing-Tsiang pu, China. The family was forced to flee China twice during the Japanese occupation of World War II, and after the second time, when Paterson was nine, they remained in the U.S.

Though her experiences in Japan had taught her to regard the Japanese as "the enemy," after receiving her bachelor's degree from King College in Tennessee and her master's degree from the Presbyterian School of Christian Education, Paterson went to Japan as a missionary from 1957 to 1961. Like the heroes in many of her novels, she came to love the people and culture she had once feared and hated.

She married John Bars tow Paterson, a clergyman, in 1962 and had two sons and adopted two daughters. She missed...