Katherine Paterson is the author of more than 30 books including 16 novels for children and young people. She recently wrote an essay for our Open a World of Possible initiative, reflecting upon her early experiences with reading. We've excerpted the essay here. The full version is published in our new Open a World of Possible book, which you can download for free here.
"I once overheard my grandmother proudly telling someone that she had taught me how to read. How could that be true? I was five years old before I ever met my grandmother and I’d always known how to read. I realize, of course, that I wasn’t born knowing how to read, I just can’t remember a time when I didn’t know how.
Reading came as naturally to me as talking, and since we lived in China, I was unstoppable in two languages by the time I was two years old—much to my father’s quiet bemusement. The language in which our mother read to us was English, and most of the books she read to us came from England. I remember her wonderful
English lavender smell when I cuddled close as she read of James James Morrison’s mother who went down to town without consulting James and has never been heard of since. The hairs prickled on my neck. My mother would never do such a thing. Or would she?"
