All Hail, the New Ambassador
Katherine Paterson takes the helm as the new Ambassador for Young People’s Literature today. She’s the second to hold that position and the first woman (Jon Scieszka filled the post admirably last year).
The position was created “to raise national awareness of the importance of young people’s literature,” so it is fitting that the New York Times‘ publishing reporter, Motoko Rich, interviews Paterson today.
Paterson tells Rich,
I want people to be reading about children of other places and other races and religions. I think novels are a wonderful way to do that because you get in somebody else’s psyche and you see things quite differently than the way you see things simply through your own eyes.