Katherine Paterson treasury

Newbery Medalist and National Book Award winner Katherine Paterson captures the poignancy of adolescence like no one else. In three of her best-loved novels, Jess, Gilly, and Sara Louise each learn they are not so different or so alone as they may think. In Bridge to Terabithia, Jess is tired of being “that crazy little kid that draws all the time.” He practices the entire summer before school starts, hoping to become the fastest boy in the fifth grade and win the approval of his classmates – only to be beaten by a girl. That same girl teaches him the beauty of his own imagination as they rule over their own imaginary kingdom, and she shows him the depth of his own strength when a tragedy occurs. The Great Gilly Hopkins has been a foster child all her life. By the time she comes to live with Maime Trotter she is already known throughout the county foster system as a terror. There is no way Gilly’s is going to accept the kindness of a woman too stupid to know what she is really like. She will just have to find a way to get to California, where her real mom is now living. In Jacob Have I Loved, Sara Louise should love her twin sister; everyone else loves beautiful, charming Caroline. For plain Sara hates her. Working her dad’s fishing boat, she finds a sense of peace. However, something more is going to have to give inside her before she can love herself, her home, and her sister.