Bridge to Terabithia

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Poor Jess is pressured everywhere, to find his place at home, at school. Then he meets Leslie and she changes his life. Leslie is able to deal with the pressures of the real world (cruel kids, competition) and is also able to find great joy in the world of the imagination. Ironically, it is on her way into that imaginary world, while she is swinging across a raging river, that Leslie’s rope breaks and she is killed. Instead of being filled with sorrow, however, Jess takes everything Leslie has given him and uses it to help himself and to teach others.

Bridge to Terabithia (1978)

I read this book in almost one sitting. Snuggled up in bed it was started before I turned off the light and finished the next morning. As an adult I really related to this book. As far as our children are concerned we may need to reflect upon the purpose of education. In my view it is about forming people who, however academically and technically skilful, are not reduced to inarticulate embarrassment by the great questions of life and death, meaning and truth. This book addresses the ‘big

questions of life and death, meaning and truth’ in the context of a childhood friendship. Yes, it is soul achingly sad …. yet few of us are untouched from grief in life ... I would highly recommend this book to be read and shared by children and caring adults everywhere.

Bridge to Terabithia

Bridge to Terabithia is one of those books that gets into your soul and sticks there for a while. It's also one of those books that means different things as you grow older, and as you grow into the lessons that it has to teach.

It's about friendship, and family, and the death of loved ones, and the ongoing death of being unseen by the people that you need most to see you. Paterson manages to capture all of these things both at the depth of adult commentary and at the depth of childlike experience, resulting in a book that is wonderful no matter how old you are.

The recent movie was both wonderful and disappointing. Imagination and the escape to a fantasy place is a major part of the book, but by making it so explicit in the movie, much of the power of imagination is stolen from the viewer. If you see the movie before you read the book, you're dong yourself a great disservice. Of course, that's true of any book. :-)

As usual, I have a word of advice for parents. This book is very, very sad, but it's also all about redemption. Read it before you read it to your kids, but do read it to your kids. It's worth the effort, and it deals with the issue of death of a friend in a very redemptive way.

Sad Books

There's an interesting post over at LiteraryMama today: Sad Stories and Why We Read Them. It talks about Bridge to Terebithia specifically, but also quotes author and blogger J.L. Bell, "who noted that the recent Newbery Award-winners are most often (in his words) 'serious books,' especially books about 'overcoming hardship'." It'll be interesting to see how much that holds true as we read all of them.

The Movie

I just returned from the Bridge to Terabithia movie. I must say, I loved it. All the mythical creatures in the previews are a miniscule part of the movie and only occur in spurts to show that they are imagining the terabithian world.

And yes, I cried a lot.

The movie is very well cast and sticks pretty close to the book! I think you'll love it!! Anybody else seen it??

Bridge to Terabithia

I hesitate to even write this post about "Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson because the tears aren't completely dried and I know I'll be thinking more clearly later! I was so excited to read this book again. The movie comes out Friday and it looks a little different, but the author's son wrote the screenplay so I'm hoping that any additions will only make it better, if that's possible!

My 4th grade teacher read this book to my class but I clearly remember her crying when she read it and all of the class joining right in! I am not sure what I shouldn't say about the book because I assume that most of us have read it and know what happens, but just in case:

*Spoiler Alert*
This book deals with a lot of themes that I continue to deal with and work out in my adult life. The main character, Jess Aarons, deals with handling fear, peer pressure, family strife, social awkwardness and death of a loved one. We see his stages of grieving and how he ultimately learns to use the gift that was his time with Leslie to become more of a man and face life's challenges head on. It is a truly touching story.

There are also some themes that I didn't remember from when my teacher read the book to us. There was definitely some language in the book that you'd want to know about before reading it out loud. It was minor, but still something I know some parents don't want their kids exposed to. Also, there are some spiritual aspects that would deserve a separate discussion with kids.

I'd just finished reading "The View from Saturday" and both Terabithia and it used other classic authors in their books. Konigsburg uses some elements from Lewis Carroll and Paterson uses C.S. Lewis' Narnia as an inspiration for Leslie creating the world of Terebithia. I wonder if more of the authors we'll be reading do this. It's definitely made me want to keep reading beyond the Newbery list and I appreciate that and hope the younger readers are inspired to do the same!