The jury’s motivation is as follows:

"Katherine Paterson (USA) is a brilliant psychologist who gets right under the skin of the vulnerable young people she creates, whether in historical or exotic settings, or in the grim reality of the USA today. With a deft aesthetic touch she avoids simple solutions, building instead on the inner strength and courage of her main characters."

Picture in high resolution (5413 kB)

Katherine Paterson Photo: Samantha Loomis Paterson

Press photographs and information about the award winner can be found at the Memorial Award website, www.alma.se and Katherine Paterson's own website, www.terabithia.com. Press material is available in French, German, Russian, Spanish and Swedish. Please see also the attached biobibliography.

H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria will present the award at a ceremony at Skansen in Stockholm on 31 May 2006. The ceremony is open to the general public.

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO KATHERINE PATERSON

American author, born in Qing Jiang, Jiangsu, China in 1932. She grew up in China and trained as a missionary in Japan before beginning her writing career in America with a number of religious textbooks. Paterson's work has included picture books and books for the very young, often based around fairytales and myths, yet it is as a writer of novels for young readers that she is best known. Often set in historical contexts in Japan, China or the US, yet frequently too against a contemporary American backdrop, these novels deal with important and sometimes difficult issues such as broken families and children at risk. Nonetheless, hope and courage also feature strongly in her works: her main characters are often vulnerable, slightly odd children, a projection of certain aspects of her own childhood.

Paterson's works have been translated into various languages, including Dutch, French, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish. She has been the recipient of a number of awards, both in her native USA and internationally. These include the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1998 in recognition of her lifetime contributions to children's literature, the 1986 Grand Prix des Jeunes Lecteurs for Bridge to Terabithia, and the 1977 National Book Award for Children's Literature for The Master Puppeteer.

Mrs Anna Cokorilo
Director, Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award
Phone: +46 (0)70 602 51 15, +46 (0)8 519 264 00/08
E-Mail: anna.cokorilo@alma.se

Mr Per Svenson
Press Manager, The Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs
Phone: +46 (0)70 397 76 80, +46 (0)8 519 264 00/49
E-Mail: per.svenson@kulturradet.se