Katherine Paterson reading

To kick off our residency, Katherine Paterson read several selections from her novels, including a novel that's coming out in September.

The first selection was from Come Sing, Jimmy Jo, a novel I'm not familiar with. It was quite funny and Ms. Paterson is a fabulous reader. I'll definitely give that one a look. She described it as one of her under appreciated babies.

But before Ms. Paterson began to read, she was introduced by Trent (see yesterday's post). He did some of the typical introduction stuff, mentioning her awards and some of her book titles. Then he explained how he'd gotten to know her through letters while he served in Afghanistan.

He brought the intro full circle by coming back to one of her books, Bridge to Terabithia, which was the one glimpse of beauty he had when he was so far from home and not knowing if he would make it home.

It was an excellent speech, full of emotion, but he reined it in and made a quick exit.

Ms. Paterson was so choked up by it that her voice was a bit raspy at first, but she assured us it would be fine in a bit, and she was right.

To learn more about Katherine Paterson, see her website: www.terabithia.com.