Children's writing

New Ambassador Announced

Jon Scieszka completed his two-year term as National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature yesterday. I’ve oohed and ahhed and sighed over Jon Scieszka here before. I love his Math Curse and Science Verse books, in particular, and appreciate the sophistication he gets away with in his work for kids. He knows kids are smart, he trusts them to understand, and they do. Hey, I just gave a Timewarp Trio book for a holiday gift.

I thought Jon would be a hard act to follow, until I learned who was named to the position today: Katherine Paterson. She says it brilliantly: “I cannot fill Jon’s shoes, but I can follow in his footsteps…”

How’s that for stepping right into the role? Add that to my Lines I Love list.

I’ve oohed and ahhed and sighed over Katherine Paterson here before, too. I’m a fan not only of her novels, but of her speeches and essays, too. She is a wise, insightful woman. And guess what: I gave one of her novels for a holiday gift, too! Park’s Quest or The Great Gilly Hopkins, or perhaps both.

“Read for Your Life” is the theme for her platform. It occurs to me that I might make her a bookmark based on that theme. Wouldn’t that be fun? Surely I could send it to an agent or publisher or the Library of Congress and it would find its way to her.

I’m saying it here; you know what that means. Now I have to do it.

Congratulations, Ambassador Paterson!

1 reply »

  1. I love her books too, and love both the quote and the theme. I don’t doubt that you will design a great bookmark for her.
    She did an author pep talk for the 2008 NaNoWriMo, and I really enjoyed it. (I think I liked the 2008 author pep talks better than the 2009 ones- or was it just my mind set?)
    I’m also a serious fan of Jon Scieszka- if one can approach his work “seriously”. My son read The Time-Warp Trio avidly and still will say “Actually, everything can be looked at as a math problem.” I appreciate authors who realize that kids are smart and treat them that way.