Press Release
The Same Stuff as Stars
by Katherine Paterson
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Introduction
About the Author
Questions and answers with Katherine Paterson
Praise for The Same Stuff as Stars
Introduction
Clarion Books is honored to announce the September publication of The Same Stuff as
Stars, the new middle-grade novel by two-time Newbery medalist Katherine Paterson.
Poignant yet uplifting, Paterson's first full-length novel since Preacher's Boy (1999) features
the masterly characterizations, keen ear, and penetrating sense of drama that won the
author two National Book Awards as well as the Hans Christian Anderson Award for her body
of work.
In The Same Stuff as Stars, Paterson has created a unique and unlikely heroine: Angel, an
unwanted, neglected latchkey kid of eleven who is forced to care for herself and her difficult
younger brother in the absence of responsible adults. Their father is in jail, and their
mother, unable to cope, abandons them at their great-grandmother's crumbling Vermont
farmhouse and disappears. Such unstable circumstances cause a girl like Angel — sensitive,
perceptive, with a highly developed sense of responsibility — a great deal of anxiety. Yet she
finds solace in one person: a mysterious stranger who appears whenever the night sky is
clear and teaches her about the stars, planets, and constellations.
Angel, Bernie, and Grandma do eventually find a sense of balance — until events conspire
against them. It's then that Angel must find the strength within herself to persevere,
reminding us once again of the incredible resilience of childhood . . . and the unquenchable
human spirit.
Asked for the source of this novel and its characters, Katherine Paterson tells a story almost
as moving as the book itself. The author was attending a reading group at a local prison.
The participants in the group, male and female, were discussing her novel The Great Gilly
Hopkins. Katherine found herself shaken when the facilitator asked the readers how many of
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them had been foster children themselves — and every single one of the twenty-odd people
around the table raised a hand.
When the discussion was over, Katherine agreed to sign the prisoners' books. She asked one
man for his name, but he said she shouldn't sign his book that way. The book was for his
little girl. "Her name is Angel," he said.
In the vein of Katherine Paterson's best-loved novels comes a new work about a spunky,
compelling girl who determinedly seeks order in her universe. Her name is Angel.
About the Author
"The growth of the imagination demands windows — windows through which we can look
out at the world, and windows through which we can look at ourselves." — Katherine
Paterson
Katherine Paterson has been providing just such windows since publishing her first novel in
1973. Since winning the Newbery Medal for Bridge to Terabithia in 1978, she has been
internationally renowned for her sensitive handling of difficult themes, her finely drawn
characters, and her moving, powerful prose.
Her many acclaimed novels include Jacob Have I Loved, which won the Newbery Medal in
1981, and The Great Gilly Hopkins, a Newbery Honor Book. She has twice received the
National Book Award for Children's Literature, and in 1998 she was awarded the Hans
Christian Andersen Medal for the body of her work. In 2000, Paterson was named a Living
Legend by the Library of Congress.
Katherine Paterson was born in China and traveled extensively with her missionary family
throughout her childhood. She has lived in rural Virginia and Japan (among other places),
two locations that she has drawn on as settings for her fiction. In addition to a variety of
honorary degrees, she holds a master's degree from the Presbyterian School of Christian
Education in Richmond, Virginia, and received a fellowship to the Union Theological
Seminary in New York City, where she met her husband.
The Patersons have four children and seven grandchildren. They live in Barre, Vermont.
Praise for The Same Stuff as Stars
"Few authors explore the theme of what defines a family with more compassion and
sensitivity than Paterson . . . as she demonstrates once again in this contemporary novel set
in rural Vermont. Eleven-year-old Angel Morgan, despite her youth, is the head of her
family. With a father in jail for robbery and murder, and Verna, her mother, too preoccupied
with herself to care for anyone else (she once 'forgot' her children in an all-night diner),
Angel looks out for her seven-year-old brother. . . . Angel's intelligence and abiding trust in
the direst of situations will convince readers that, despite the unresolved ending, she will
rise above her circumstances." — Publishers Weekly, starred
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"Paterson has once again crafted a beautifully written, wonderfully told story that exposes
some of the most disturbing parts of our society while at the same time teaching the value
of each and every person. . . . Angel's loneliness is as immense as the night skies that a
kind stranger teaches her about. . . . The enchanted night sky gives Angel perspective on
her life; it becomes a metaphor on many levels in the novel. . . . A new novel by Katherine
Paterson is cause for great celebration, and this one more than measures up. Angel Morgan
will take her place in readers' hearts right next to Lyddie, Gilly, Lupe, and Jip." — School
Library Journal, starred
Questions and answers with Katherine Paterson
Q) We were wondering how you were able to come up with two such totally
unrelated ideas as Gilly Hopkins and Bridge to Terabithia. Did anything happen in
your life, or did something you read inspire you to write any of your books?
A) Both Bridge and Gilly grew out of real-life experiences. I wrote Bridge because our son
David's best friend, an eight-year-old named Lisa Hill, was struck and killed by lightning. I
wrote the book to try to make sense out of a tragedy that seemed senseless. I wrote Gilly
after I'd been a foster mother for a couple of months and didn't feel as though I'd been such
a great one, so I tried to imagine how it might be to be a foster child. How would I feel if I
thought the rest of the world thought of me as disposable?
Q) I'm curious about what you're working on now. When will your next novel be
published, and is it something appropriate for fifth graders?
A) I'm not sure when the next one will be ready. I am one of those terrible people who just
can't talk about what I'm currently working on. Sorry!
Q) Who has had the greatest influence on your life as a writer?
A) Many people and books have had a lot of influence on me, but I suppose I would have to
say that my husband has had the most influence. He believed that I could write during all
those years when no one wanted to publish anything I had written. He was the one who
made me put "writer" on the IRS form instead of "housewife." He is my first editor and my
best booster. And no matter what I say, he always thinks I can write another book.
Q) Was there ever a time when you felt as though you could not muddle through
the writing or rewriting of one more manuscript?
A) Every time. My husband listens to me while I moan and then says calmly, "Oh, you've
reached THAT stage." It makes me so mad I go back and finish.
Q) Which of your books' characters have surprised you the most during their
evolution?
A) Hmm. Great question. I've never thought of it before. Let's see. . . . Perhaps Lyddie. I
guess I was surprised that she became so grasping — almost losing sight of why she needed
money. It dawned on me later that she became for a while a reflection of the greed of the
mill owners. There is always a danger that one will become like one's enemy.
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Q) Why do you use swear words in your book Bridge to Terabithia? We do not read
them aloud in class, and yet we still understand the context of the sentence. What
was your motivation to write Bridge to Terabithia? Where did the name Terabithia
come from?
A) Jess and his father talk like the people I knew who lived in that area. I believe it is my
responsibility to create characters who are real, not models of good behavior. If Jess and his
dad are to be real, they must speak and act like real people. I have a lot of respect for my
readers. I do not expect them to imitate my characters, simply to care about them and
understand them. I wrote Bridge to try to understand for myself the tragedy of Lisa Hill's
death and, though I was not fully aware of it, to help me face my own death.
I thought I'd made up "Terabithia." I realized when the book was nearly done that there is
an island in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis called Terebinthia. I'm sure I
borrowed that unconsciously, but, then, so would Leslie, who loved the Chronicles of Narnia.
And, by the way, Lewis got Terebinthia from the Biblical terebinth tree, so it wasn't original
with him, either.
Q) In what ways has your religious conviction informed your writing? And would
you comment on the presence (or lack) of religious content, specifically Christian,
in recent children's literature (say, the last fifteen years or so)?
A) I think it was Lewis who said something like "the book cannot be what the writer is not."
What you are will shape your book whether you want it to or not. I am Christian, so that
conviction will pervade the book even when I make no conscious effort to teach or preach.
Grace and hope will inform everything I write.
You're asking me to comment on fifteen years of 5000 or so books a year. Whew! We live in
a post-Christian society. Therefore, not many of those writers will be Christians or adherents
of any of the traditional faiths. Self-consciously Christian (or Jewish or Muslim) writing will
be sectarian and tend to propaganda and therefore have very little to say to persons outside
that particular faith community. The challenge for those of us who care about our faith and
about a hurting world is to tell stories that will carry the words of grace and hope in their
bones and sinews and not wear them like fancy dress.
Q) What was your favorite book/author/illustrator as a child? Did this person
influence your writing when you grew up? Which books stand out in your mind
from the years you were six to fifteen?
A) We have several questions here for which there is no single answer. At different ages I
had different favorite books. I loved being read to, and my mother read to us a lot. Those
early books were mostly English — A. A. Milne, Beatrix Potter, Kenneth Grahame, Kipling,
and Stevenson. They have all stood the test of time and I'm still rereading all of them. My
new novel coming out in the fall was certainly influenced by Kidnapped. All of my work is an
attempt to write something that will touch a reader the way The Secret Garden affected me
at eight. The Yearling, which was my favorite at eleven or twelve, certainly influenced me. I
loved Kate Seredy, Robert Lawson, Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, Heidi — What can I say? I
read a lot.
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Q) What is something fun from your elementary school years that you can
remember about yourself? What kind of child were you?
A) When I was in the sixth grade, I wrote plays that my classmates and I acted out on the
playground and sometimes on rainy days in the classroom. I loved those plays. I was a very
shy child who loved to show off. Still am.
Q) Do you enjoy receiving mail from kids, and do you respond to it?
A) Hard question. Nothing means more to a writer than to get a letter from a reader who
has deeply connected to one of your books. I love to get that kind of letter. In the olden
(pre-Newbery) days, it was almost the only kind of letter I got, and I loved responding to
them. Since Newbery, I am more often the subject of a class assignment, so it means I get
lots of mail, very little of which I can respond to adequately. It makes me feel constantly
guilty. But I know if I answered every letter personally I would never get another book
written, much less have time for family and friends. I've had to make choices which make
other people unhappy.
Q) Do you base your characters and stories on real people and events in your life?
If so, could you share a personal moment that was related to one of your books?
A) I've already mentioned Bridge and Gilly. Perhaps I should mention a different book. I
wrote Come Sing, Jimmy Jo, while I was still struggling with the dilemma a very private
person (who is also a showoff) meets when she is suddenly "famous." I loved parts of being
famous (being, as I say, a natural-born show ff), but I hated the parts of it that seemed to
invade my private spaces.
I remembered my junior high days and a girl in my class called Anita Carter. Anita was
painfully shy. But that wasn't why none of us knew how to treat her. The problem was that
she was also famous — being a country music singer with her mother MayBelle and her two
older sisters. In my own little struggle with celebrity, I began to think about how hard it
must have been for Anita, who was so shy in school and such a star on stage. By the way,
Anita wrote me to say how much she loved the book, but then said, "I feel terrible that I
can't picture you." Of course she couldn't; in the story of her life I was the totally forgettable
Will Short.
Q) What are your hobbies and outside interests?
A) I love to read. (Surprise.) I love to sing. I play both the piano and tennis badly, but still
like to do them. I have a wonderful family who are definitely outside interests in my life and
two terrific granddaughters. I've made six quilts. (Vermont has long winters.) I like
crossword puzzles and Scrabble with my daughter. I like some movies and some TV. My
latest interest is pastels. I take a class every week. I'm not a gifted artist, by any means,
but I'm learning a lot and I love doing it.
Q) What would you like to see children doing more or less of today?
A) Well, of course I want children to read more. I am not of the "Throw the TV and
computers on the dump" school. I just feel that a life in balance is better than one that goes
off the deep end in any direction. My admittedly limited experience on the Internet and with
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computer "information" has revealed that this is a rather shallow sort of knowledge and
impersonal sort of human connection. I think great books and real-life human beings do a
better job of making us wise, compassionate people.
Q) What would you like to be remembered for when you are gone, aside from your
writing?
A) Hmm. Something on the tombstone, eh? I guess I want my children to remember how
much I loved them and how much time I spent reading to them.
Q) What aspect of writing brings you the most joy (research, writing, etc.)?
A) I love to rewrite. First drafts are usually painful. But a good rewrite morning is bliss.
Teachers love to hear me say this, but I must hasten to add that when I was in elementary
school I didn't even know what a revision was.
Q) What would be your words of wisdom to a person who wants to write but is
paralyzed by failure in the middle of every project? What advice would you give
people starting out?
A) When a teacher (still a dear friend) of mine in graduate school suggested I ought to be a
writer, I was appalled. "I don't want to add another mediocre writer to the world," I said.
She helped me (it took years of nudging) to understand that if I wasn't willing to risk
mediocrity, I would never accomplish anything. There are simply no guarantees. It takes
courage to lay your insides out for people to examine and sneer over. But that's the only
way to give what is your unique gift to the world. I have often noted that it takes the
thinnest skin in the world to be a writer and it takes the thickest to seek out publication. But
both are needed — the extreme sensitivity and the hippo hide against criticism. Send your
inner critic off on vacation and just write the way little children play. You can't be judge and
creator at the same time.
Q) When in your mind did you know you were a writer?
A) I'm not sure even yet.
Q) What are your writing habits? Do you write daily or when inspiration strikes?
Same time and place?
A) No, no, no. You can't wait for inspiration to strike. It's like lightning. Hardly ever does it
twice in the same book. You go to work every morning. It's day labor. Having said that, it is
the best job in the world.
Q) I read that your son had an experience like Jesse's in Bridge to Terabithia —
losing a close friend in a freak accident. How did your son respond to the book?
Was there a therapeutic value in this for him?
A) David still, at age thirty-three, with two little boys of his own, finds Bridge a very difficult
book to read. It's too close to the bone. Any therapeutic value the book had was for me,
facing not only Lisa's death but my own mortality call. I had cancer that year and was
hearing the bell toll.
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Q) Have you ever thought about another book for Jesse? Does he still live in your
mind, growing older, continuing his art, etc.?
A) No. I feel strongly that Jesse has earned his privacy.
Q) How do you respond to those who wish to censor/remove your books from the
libraries (Great Gilly Hopkins)? I loved Gilly! My favorite book!
A) Gilly is a lost child who lies, steals, bullies, despises those who are different or perceived
to be weaker — a child like this does not say "fiddlesticks" when frustrated. I could not
duplicate her real speech without drowning the story in obscenity, but I had to hint at her
language. She would not be real if her mouth did not match her behavior.
Q) Many of your first books were set in Japan, which I enjoyed immensely. Are you
planning to write any other novels with Japan as the setting, or more folktales
such as The Tale of the Mandarin Ducks?
A) I'm not sure. I love writing about Japan, but I've gotten a bit shy about writing about a
culture that I was not born into. When I wrote the novels set in Japan, it was close to the
time when I had lived there. That was more than thirty years ago! Japan has changed a lot
since then, and so have I.
Q) What influences your choice of settings for your books?
A) I don't know. I'd like to, but I just can't predict what I'll be doing next.
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