Patterson, James
Glance at any bestseller list — children’s or adult — and chances are high that your eyes will alight on the name James Patterson not just once but with a frequency and intensity that exemplifies the powerhouse author’s style and prolificacy.
When a best-selling author sets his sights on getting kids to read, chances are high that he will find a way to hook them. When that author’s name is James Patterson and he is willing not only to devote his talent but also his resources to the effort, everyone’s a winner. “The biggest thing that drives me is my mission to get kids to love books-millions of kids have never learned to love to read,” laments the author. “At this stage in our civilization, books are the best place to get diversity of opinion,” Patterson contends. He believes that the way kids are introduced to reading can turn them off. “That”s a tragedy,” he concludes.
Patterson knows what he is talking about. His own son, Jack, was not a reader so Patterson did what he urges other concerned parents to do. First, he made reading mandatory beginning with forty minutes a day over an entire summer. Second, he found books that would appeal to Jack’s tastes and interests. Jack’s initial response was “Do I have to?” but “by the end of that first summer,” Patterson recalls, “Jack had read a half dozen books he really liked. By the time he was ten, he had read 40 or 50.” Mission accomplished”Jack had become a reader.
Patterson began www.readkiddoread.com because he wanted to provide a place for kids, parents, and teachers to find books that would create readers. This helpful website features four categories defined not only by age but also by the nature of the storytelling: illustrated, transitional, pageturners, and advanced readers. Useful write-ups make book decisions easier and read-alike lists can help the reader find their next favorite book. For educators, the resources are just as good and include lesson plans for dozens of books, interviews by James Patterson with the biggest names in children’s and YA books plus a community for sharing ideas. Several big names in the reading world– Pam Allyn, Judy Freeman, Mark Nichols and Kyle Zimmer– also contribute to the site as well.
Patterson’s first model for encouraging a lifelong love of reading was in his own home. Patterson’s grandmother worked in a library and his mother volunteered her time at the local branch. He grew up in an atmosphere permeated by the presence of books and loving family members who could help him find the books that would appeal to where he was at the moment. “For many parents, it never occurs to them that it’s up to them to find the books that your kids are going to love. Readkiddoread.com can make it easy for you,” he explains. He likens the bookstore experience to some people’s dislike of going into hardware stores”people don’t like to go into places and feel stupid.” Starting kids on the path to reading for pleasure is the key: “Get them books that will get them to Dickens and Shakespeare,” explains the author of three best-selling series for kids.
Each of Patterson’s series for young readers has a particular focus. Maximum Ride is “really about kids taking responsibility for their actions. Daniel X celebrates the power of the imagination and the most recent series, Witch and Wizard, takes place in a world that has become a totalitarian state where magic becomes a metaphor for the importance of the arts. Not content to stop there, Patterson is at work on yet another series, this one created specifically for middle school readers. Though a name has not been decided on, Patterson exclaims that “this is the best of them all!” and that his publisher is “over the moon about it.” Fans take note: This will be the first Patterson series to be illustrated.
One doesn’t have to rely on sales statistics to know that Patterson is a favorite author. His work has also been nominated for the Children’s Choice awards. Sponsored by the Children’s Book Council, kids nominate the books themselves. This recognition has a special savor for the author: “It’s a very nice thing to happen twice.”
Interestingly, adult readers are devouring Maximum Ride and Daniel X with the same appetite they reserved until now for his Women’s Murder Club or Alex Cross novels. Patterson says his approach to writing is the same regardless of the age of the audience. “I don’t even think about it,” remarks Patterson. “Storytelling is very easy for me”give me anything and I could weave a story around it.” At the same time he does acknowledge that “the series demand imagination to keep them growing.” At the rate Patterson’s bibliography is growing, his imagination seems limitless.
– Interviewed by Ellen Myrick, April 2010
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