Mar 15, 2006, 14:14 GMT
Stockholm - American author Katherine Paterson was Wednesday named winner of the 2006 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for her stories about 'vulnerable young people.'
The jury cited Paterson as '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 United States today.'
'It was a wonderful way to be awakened,' Paterson said in an interview on Swedish radio, minutes after being notified by the jury.
Paterson, born 1932 in China as the daughter of an American missionary, was selected among 137 candidates from 55 countries for the literature prize created in memory of famed Swedish author Astrid Lindgren.
The prize, worth 5 million kronor (636,000 dollars), was created 2002 by the Swedish government in honour of Lindgren, creator of numerous popular fiction characters including Pippi Longstocking.
Paterson said her works were 'mostly about children who live very hard lives, who have to find hope and purpose in the difficult lives they live.'
Asked what new readers should start off with, Paterson recommended Bridge to Terabithia, which was awarded the 1986 Grand Prix des Jeunes Lecteurs.
Paterson trained as a missionary in Japan before moving to the US where she began to write. Her works include picture books and books for the very young, often based around fairytales and myths, but the jury said she is best known for her novels for young readers.
Among her works are The Great Gilly Hopkins about an 11-year-old girl; Jip, His Story (1996) about a young farmhand, and her 1973 fictional debut Sign Of The Chrysanthemum about a 13-year-old boy's search for his father in 12th century Japan.
Her books have been translated into Dutch, French, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.
Other awards include the 1998 Hans Christian Andersen Award for her contributions to children's literature, and the 1977 National Book Award for Children's Literature for The Master Puppeteer.
On her own website (www.terabithia.com), Paterson said she read a lot as a child and among authors who influenced her were AA Milne, Beatrix Potter, Kenneth Graham, Rudyard Kipling, and later Robert Louis Stevenson, Kate Seredy, Robert Lawson, Charles Dickens, and Louisa May Alcott.
The announcement was made in Astrid Lindgren's childhood town Vimmerby in southern Sweden. Crown Princess Victoria was slated to preside at the May 31 award ceremony at the Skansen open-air museum in Stockholm.
The 2005 award was shared by Japanese illustrator Ryôji Arai and British author Philip Pullman.
Brazilian author Lygia Bojunga won in 2004, while Austrian author Christine Nostlinger and US author and illustrator Maurice Sendak shared the prize when it was first awarded in 2003.
The prize aims at awarding writers, illustrators of children's and young people's literature, or promoters of reading whose work reflect the spirit of Astrid Lindgren.
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