Childhood Hero is National Ambassador to Young People's Literature

By Erin L. Cox

Today, two-time National Book Award and Newbery Medal winner, Katherine Paterson, author of Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob Have I Loved, succeeded Jon Scieszka as the United States Library of Congress’ National Ambassador to Young People’s Literature. The role was created to help raise awareness about literature in terms of education and lifelong literacy. Paterson’s platform for her ambassadorship is to “Read for Your Life.”

As a child, Paterson inspired that very feeling in me. I remember reading Bridge to Terabithia and feeling so connected to the story, encountering experiences and emotions I wouldn’t have found in my own life, and feeling that first spark for more books, more stories, more life unlike my own.

It is Katherine Paterson, in addition to other writers, such as Roald Dahl, Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, Madeline L’Engle, and James Howe who are to thank for the start of my lifelong love of reading (or blame, when I’m buried in a book and ignoring other activities). These writers taught me how to experience life I had yet to live and people I had yet to meet in their fantastic stories. I look forward to this new generation of American children who will benefit from Paterson’s experiences and her ambassadorship.

Which author first sparked a love of reading in you?

About the Author

Erin L. Cox

Erin L. Cox is the Publisher of Publishing Perspectives. She has spent more than 25 years on the business development and promotional side of the publishing industry, working in book publicity at Scribner and HarperCollins, advertising sales and marketing at The New Yorker, and consulting with publishers, literary organizations, book fairs, writers, and technology companies serving the publishing industry. Cox is also the Publisher of Words & Money, a new media site focused on centering libraries in the publishing conversation.