Katherine Paterson has a background of growing up in a Christian home, traveling across the globe early on in life, and learning different cultures – including Chinese. The best books of Katherine Paterson combine a bit of all of her experiences on her way to becoming a renowned writer and awards winner.
Bridge to Terabithia
‘Bridge to Terabithia’ follows the story of 10 years old Jesse Aarons who struggles with lack of love and family abandonment. Although Jesse comes from a lovely family of seven – where he is the only son, he feels sad, bored, and miserable busy his parents are way too busy with work to give him attention, and his sisters would rather make jokes about him or get him in trouble with their parents.
As Jesse searches for what he lacks in life, he finds friendship in Leslie, his neighbor, and classmate, and this happens unexpectedly given that both were athletic enemies at the first meeting.
Their friendship grows and they manage to build Terabithia, a sort of magical ground that takes away all of their problems and makes them king and queen. The worse happens while Jesse is away on a road trip to Washington with his music teacher. Leslie dies in the swamp of Terabithia.
Jesse returns and is devastated about the news. Nevertheless, he picks up enough courage to mend the bridges of Terabithia to prevent a reoccurrence of such tragedy.
The Great Gilly Hopkins
This is a book that won Katherine Paterson several awards and accolades following its publication. ‘The Great Gilly Hopkins’ tells the story of young Gilly who is abandoned by her mother and finds herself between foster homes.
Sad and angry about the way her life is, and with the hope of reuniting with her mother, Gilly decides to be stubborn, unpleasant, and disrespectful to any foster home that would accept her. She unleashes a living hell on these foster homes but is lucky to find one that loves and cares for her by taking her in as a family- despite her being uncouth and unruly.
Unwilling to settle, Gilly manages to stir up trouble resulting in her grandmother obtaining a document to keep custody of her. Her real mother would later visit, but Gilly soon finds out that she is nothing like the beautiful and caring mother she remembered, she’s, in fact, irresponsible and a fraud. Fill my decision to go back to the one foster home that treated her like a family but is rejected and told to stay with her grandmother.
Lyddie
This novel by Katherine Paterson follows the story of Lyddie who ventures out in search of a menial job with her little brother. Lyddie aims to help her family get off debts and reverse the danger of losing their farm and home.
She takes up this job at a production factory but finds it difficult to fit in the state of affairs – particularly having issues with the ethical and moral decadence exhibited by the men and other adults at the workplace.
Lyddie would never stoop so low as to compromise her integrity just to fit it, but instead seeks freedom from such a life. She is eventually fired after she reveals an immoral incident carried out by one of the influential men but finds the peace and freedom she had sought for a long.
Jacob Have I Loved
Also an award-winning book by Katherine Paterson, ‘Jacob Have I Loved’ narrates the story of two sisters, Sara and Caroline Bradshaw. Sara is jealous of her twin sister Caroline for being the shiner in their shared life; she’s the most beautiful, most talented, the better one, her parents’ favorite – and has just started being preferred by Sara’s friends.
Sara has one dream; to live outside the shadow of her twin sister. To do so, she embarks on a journey to rediscover herself and her own talents, but it’s never going to be easy for her.
The King’s Equal
‘The Kings Equal’ is a thrilling fantasy written by Katherine Paterson and follows the tale of a dying king whose a condition for transferring the kingship to his son, Raphael, is that his son must search for and bring him a female who is equally as beautiful, wealthy and intelligent as he (his son).
Prince Raphael ventures out sweeping clean the whole village in search of such a person. His search ends in futility, but one day, the enigmatic Rosamund shows up at his palace bearing all the characteristics. Raphael knows for sure this is the person he has been looking for, but Rosamund has more than a few expectations of her own.
FAQs
How many books have Katherine Paterson written?
Katherine Paterson is a prolific writer and has written more than 40 books in all – and this includes 18 great books written in the children’s category.
Which of Katherine Paterson’s books is considered her best?
Katherine Paterson has several great books a few of which have won awards, however, ‘Bridge to Terabithia’ is widely considered her best and most populous because of its reach and impact.
What kind of books does Katherine Paterson write?
Katherine Paterson’s writing cuts across a long list of genres – mostly those bordering around history and nonfiction. She is also highly talented and prolific with churning out masterpieces in the children’s book genre.
