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April 21, 2020 by Travis Jonker

Books on Film: Katherine Paterson Documentary

April 21, 2020 by Travis Jonker   1 comments

A while back I got an email from Jennifer Holberg at Calvin University (located in Grand Rapids, MI – about half an hour from where I live). They were making a documentary about Katherine Paterson, to premiere during their biannual Festival of Faith and Writing (which was the occasion that led to this post a few years back).

“That’s cool!”, I thought. She’s one of the greats, and her life would make a fantastic documentary subject.

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They said they were looking for a librarian to contribute to the doc, and asked if I would be up for it. I’m no Paterson scholar, I told them, but I’ve read her books and I interviewed her at ALA a couple years ago – I’m game.

So on a Saturday Jennifer and Jon Brown came to our school library, set up shop, and we did the interview.

Fast forward a few months. The film was done, and was all set to run at the festival, (where Paterson was to be the guest of honor) but then, you know.

Postponed.

While that’s a big bummer, some good came out of it, because they decided to put the doc up online for everyone and anyone to check out.

It’s so well done, and well worth your time.

Plus, come on, how many times can you watch Tiger King?

Thank you to Jennifer Holberg and Jon Brown for inviting me to take part.

Filed under: Books on Film

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About Travis Jonker

Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.

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Comments

  1. Mary Hofman says

    April 21, 2020 at 10:48 am

    Loved the film! It was a happy surprise to see and hear Travis also.

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