The Invisible Child

I picked up this book, The Invisible Child by Katherine Paterson, at the library this week, on my quest to read more about writing for children. Paterson (great name!) is a two-time winner of the National Book Award and winner of the Newbury Medal and the book is a series of speeches and essays about her experiences and insights into writing for the younger audience. 

When I read this in the blurb, I knew I was onto a good thing:

"Each character in a novel has a visible self and an invisible self. It is the peculiar nature of novels that they allow that invisible self to be open and available to the reader."

It was even better when I started reading the introduction. Paterson is the mother of four children and grandchildren of more, and she writes: "Success might have come sooner if I'd had a room of my own and fewer children, but I doubt it. For as I look at my writing, it seems to me that the very persons who took away my time and space are the ones who have given me something to say."