Windows to 'the shining world'

By Ed McNulty

Presbyterian author Katherine Paterson, whose award-winning book Bridge to Terabithia has been made into a film.

The Womeldorfs moved around between North Carolina, West Virginia, and back to Virginia. She attended King College in Bristol, Tenn., and after graduating, taught sixth grade students in Lovettsville, Va., for a year. This experience formed an important part of her book Bridge to Terabithia. She reports on her website that "almost all my children were like Jesse Aarons."

As a child, Paterson did not dream of becoming a writer, though she did write plays for her sixth grade friends to perform. Instead, she wanted to be either a movie star or a missionary to China. Apparently deciding on the latter career (she did act in plays during her school years), she attended the Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Va. When her path to China was blocked by the Communist takeover, a friend suggested she go to Japan. She resisted because she had grown to hate the Japanese due to their brutal invasion of China. But she finally did go to Japan, learning to love the people and their culture, as her book Sign of the Chrysanthemum shows.

After four years she returned to the United States to study theology in New York City. She gave up her plan to return to Japan when she met and fell in love with the young Presbyterian pastor John Paterson. Her mission field became a series of pastorates and four children.

I caught up with Paterson by telephone on the morning that she was getting ready to leave her Vermont home for the premiere of her film in Los Angeles. Having seen the not-so-faithful adaptation of her book that aired on PBS, I asked her how she felt about the new Disney version.

“They've done much better in the new production,” she said. Paterson said she wrote the book in the 1970s for her son David, when his friend Lisa was killed by lightning. It was a way of dealing with the girl’s death, for herself as well as for her son. This time it was David who co-wrote the movie script. The studio had their writer, plus a couple of others, she said, but “David was able, even after the other writers had a go at it, to go back and bring it close to the story in the book and keep it faithful, so I’m very pleased the way it’s come out.”

Although Bridge to Terabithia is labeled a “children’s book,” it is nothing like those penned by such writers as Beatrix Potter. There is a touch of fantasy in the book, but the story is grounded in reality. Death intrudes suddenly, people live close to the poverty line and some of the characters utter curse words. Asked how she handled the complaints from a few teachers and parents, the author replied, “My feeling is that when you’re writing, you’re being as honest as you can be, and you have to be true to your characters. They’re not going to be exemplary human beings; they’re going to be human beings. And they will speak and act the way persons would in those circumstances.”

The Bridge to Terabithia movie poster. Graphic art © 2007 Walt Disney and Walden Media.

Paterson doesn’t like being labeled “a Christian writer,” but sees herself as a writer who is a Christian. She explained, “I think your writing is who you are, and if you are a Christian, then that comes through willy-nilly, and not something that you have to put in.” I noted that the theme of her story is grace, but she does not spell this out — she lets us discover it for ourselves, to which she responded, “Well, that’s what you do in a story. That’s what Jesus always did in stories.”

Paterson’s first writing was church school curricula for the Presbyterian Church in 1964, but she wanted to go on and write the kind of fictional stories she enjoyed reading. Her husband, John, has been her staunchest fan and critic, often encouraging her, especially when she was starting out and it seemed that no publisher could be found for her novels. “He feels like my writing has been my calling,” she said.

“When it was ever mentioned in the odd conversation with parishioners that I wasn’t playing the role of a proper preacher’s wife, he would say, ‘Well, Katherine has her own calling’' I was very much a part of the church, and I cared about it. I sing in the choir; I teach Sunday school. I do things that any concerned member would do, but I don’t try to play the role as in the old time or the traditional way of being ‘the preacher’s wife.’”

The novelist is currently spending much of her time helping to promote the movie and the book. She recommends the film without reservation, expressing a great deal of praise for the young actors who play Jesse, Leslie, and May Belle. She said the ads and previews of the film, giving the impression that it is a special effects-driven movie, are misleading. The special effects do not overwhelm the story, as has happened in other films.

The movie stays close to the book, and even includes a touching scene that was left out in the TV adaptation, in which a teacher says just the right words of comfort for Jesse. Paterson’s son David told her about an incident on the set when they were shooting this part of the story. The scene had to be shot over again because the sound of sobbing was heard — and not from an actor. A burly, tattooed cameraman got so caught up in the scene that he started crying.

Paterson has brought a sense of grace and self-worth to millions of young readers, as well as to adults still young enough at heart to read her books. She tells stories in which children, often on the fringe of society, are the main characters. Her almost 20 works of fiction include two for young children, co-written with husband John.