Katherine Paterson

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is publishing a monthly series of e-only essays to correspond with Katherine Paterson's two-year term as the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. The subjects of the essays include: writing and literature for young people, the wonder and imagination found within great books, common questions novice writers ask, and Katherine's own personal experiences throughout her historic career.

Feeling deprived all her life of schooling, friends, mother, and even her name by her twin sister, Louise finally begins to find her identity.

Holiday hijinks abound in this very merry Christmas story about three siblings who can't resist sneaking a peek under the tree before it's time, for fans of How to Catch Santa and 5 More Sleeps. Everyone knows there's no peeking at presents before Christmas morning. But what if there's a very, very good reason to take a look? It's Christmas Eve and the three kids in this story are trying their best to go to sleep, but something keeps waking them...

After the shepherds leave and while Joseph sleeps, Mary holds her baby boy, Jesus, rejoicing and marveling over her role in his nativity.

It's 1899 in a small town in Vermont, and the turn of the century is coming fast. According to certain members of the church where Robbie's father is the preacher, the end of the century might even mean the end of the world. But Robbie has more pressing worries. He's sure his father loves his simple-minded brother, Elliot, better than him, and he can no longer endure the tiresome restrictions of Christianity. He decides to leave the fold and become...

Jake and Rosa, two children, form an unlikely friendship as they try to survive and understand the 1912 Bread and Roses strike of mill workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Impoverished Vermont farm girl Lyddie Worthen is determined to gain her independence by becoming a factory worker in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1840s.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is publishing a monthly series of e-only essays to correspond with Katherine Paterson's two-year term as the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. The subjects of the essays include: writing and literature for young people, the wonder and imagination found within great books, common questions novice writers ask, and Katherine's own personal experiences throughout her historic career.

Nine-year-old Vinnie Matthews is a little girl with a big problem. She needs a lifesaver-not the candy kind, but a real one that will take her back to her home in Washington and make her daddy live again. Life without Daddy means moving to Grandma's rickety old house in Virginia and going to a new school where the other girls only make fun of Vinnie. Most of the time, Vinnie spends recess sitting alone on the school steps. But one day on the playground,...

Eleven-year-old Parkington Waddell Broughton knows he is the fifth person to bear this family name, but he doesn't know much more about his relatives. His father died in the Vietnam War when Park was an infant, and his mother refuses to talk about his father's life or his family. Finally, Park convinces his mother to let him visit his grandfather's farm in Virginia. The boy hopes he will find answers to his questions there. But his grandfather is...