A Midnight Clear - Hardcover

Katherine Patersonis the renowned author of many classic childrens books, including Bridge to Terabithia; The Great Gilly Hopkins; Lyddie; Jacob Have I Loved; Come Sing, Jimmy Jo; and The Master Puppeteer, among many others. Her work has won two Newbery Medals and a Newbery Honor, two National Book Awards, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. She also served a term as the National Ambassador for Childrens Literature. Katherine lives in Vermont.

Gr. 5 and up. Like Paterson's Angels and Other Strangers (1979), this collection of stories reveals the spirit of Christmas in contemporary life. A few are sentimental with contrived parallels and saintly characters; a few may be too adult in viewpoint to appeal to young readers. But the best of the stories reveal hope and light in a dark, uncertain world. Paterson writes with simple immediacy about outcasts: strangers on the street and at your door, runaways, failures, and illegal immigrants--people who can find no room at the inn. The endings offer no easy resolution, only an opening out of possibilities. One exquisite story about a teenage runaway in the empty night celebrates the song of "stubborn sweetness" that persists despite our turning away from it again and again. Hazel Rochman