I just found out yesterday that Katherine Paterson, one of my favorite children's authors, has won the Astrid Lindgren award. Heartfelt congratulations to her! What a joy to hear someone of her caliber has won such a prestigious award.
Paterson has written numerous wonderful stories. Her best known are probably Bridge to Terebithia, Jacob Have I Loved, and The Great Gilly Hopkins, but she's written many others as well. Award recipients are chosen from many nominations by a committee in Sweden. The award is an international honor, named for the author of the Pippi Longstocking books. It's also the largest award given to children's authors -- the prize money totals (get this!) $640,000! Even a long-established mutliple Newbery winner like Paterson must be reeling over the total. Children's book authors just do not make that kind of money in our world...at least not usually.
Actually, that was one of the nicest things about this, I think -- although the money seems like an huge amount, we know that that kind of cash (and more) is regularly doled out to people for accomplishments of a much less profound and much more ephemeral kind. Six figures are usually reserved for people who can throw a ball in a hoop, or make people laugh on a thirty-minute sitcom fourteen times a year, or who run companies with questionable practices. OK, I'm being slightly cycnical. But only slightly! Not everyone who makes large amounts of money has questionable ethics, but a lot do. And although it takes skill to tell a joke or play sports with grace and speed, I think our culture needs to ask itself some hard questions about why we award those skills with so much money while so many people working dilligently and hard at professions that make huge difference in people's lives (like teachers, for instance) often struggle to earn a living wage. Where is our treasure? That's where our heart is, as Jesus tells us.
OK, enough of my soapbox. :-) Let me revel for a moment that an author like Paterson, a simple, grounded, Christian woman who has spent years creating stories that are beautifully crafted and that provide helpful formation for young imaginations, hearts and minds, has been rewarded so tangibly. I'm sure she'll spend the money wisely (she's already gone on record as saying so...adding that she was taught that trait was important from childhood on) and I'm sure she would be quick to admit that she's been as richly rewarded in less tangible ways all through her careeer. All of which makes this news very nice news indeed.
2 comments:
I love Katherine Paterson. She is one of my favorite authors. I always thought the Newbery was the biggest award an author could hope for. This reward was well deserved, I would say! I'm sure she will use the money well.
I know...I was absolutely shocked when I came across this news item and saw the amount of the award! Paterson herself didn't even know she was nominated for it this year, so it was a huge surprise. She made some sort of comment along the lines of how nice it is to see how valued children's literature is in certain countries. I was wondering if she was also thinking "but not here so much..." :-)
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