An Ode to the Beauty of Friendship: Bridge to Terabithia
Written: Sep 28 '06
Product Rating:
Pros: Beautiful story; memorable characters; rich in life lessons
Cons: Final chapters emotionally heavy (though cathartic); you'll want to assess child's readiness for topic
The Bottom Line: ...hadn't Leslie, even in Terabithia, tried to... make him see beyond to a shining world -- huge and terrible and beautiful and very fragile?
befus's Full Review: Katherine Paterson - Bridge to Terabithia
Oh how I wish that I had found Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia in my childhood. The Newbery Award winning book was published in 1977, the summer I was nine. And I really needed this book then.
I suppose on the face of it, my ninth summer might look pretty ordinary. There were no major tragedies (however one might define them) but there were lots and lots of little losses, one on top of the other. It was the first summer I can recall really understanding what "loss" meant. A painful and difficult neighborhood dispute erupted and my best friend moved away while things were still unresolved. My big brother got married, the first of my older siblings to permanently leave the family, making me realize that within a few years I, the baby of the family, would be the only one left at home. My grandmother moved in with us, bringing plenty of beauty and fun to the family dynamic but also bringing depression and illness which created tense and trying times for my parents.
I know I spent much of that spring and summer playing alone, or playing with my paperdolls on the windowsill. I also know I spent a lot of time in trees, reading books (when I look back, most of my childhood seems spent there). I read everything I could get my hands on, and of course I had my favorites: especially Alcott and Lewis. Had I discovered Narnia by then? I'm not sure if it was that year or my 10th. But I do know that I had not yet discovered Terabithia, and that's a pity.
I didn't enter Paterson's ordinary but beautiful world of Terabithia until 10 years later. I was 19, in my second year of college. A professor from freshman year had put me onto Kat Paterson's books -- he himself had known her personally years before. He knew I wanted to be a writer, so he encouraged me to read as many good stories as I could, and Paterson fit that bill. I began to gobble up everything of her's I could find and I enjoyed them all. But when I got to Terabithia, I couldn't "gobble." This is a book that needs to be read, enjoyed, savored, and then read again. Almost 20 years later, I can still sit down with it, like I did yesterday, and read and laugh and cry all over again.
Bridge to Terabithia tells the story of Jess Aaron, a rising 5th grader. Jess is a dreamer, an artist, the only boy in a family full of girls. He lives on a farm. He always feels like a bit of an outsider everywhere he goes, whether home or school. He's a loner, driven to accomplish something good. His immediate goal, when the story opens, is to become the fastest runner in his class. That dream is punctured when a new kid moves in next door, a kid who runs like a dream. Her name is Leslie Burke.
Yes, I did say Leslie. The fact that he's outrun by a girl does prick Jess' pride, but he's tough enough to take it (especially because Leslie can outrun every other boy too). Leslie is even more of an outsider than Jess. She comes from a city and her parents have money. They've moved to a farm to "reassess their value structure" a phrase which Jess finds decidedly weird. Leslie dresses differently than the other kids in school. She talks about different things. She doesn't even have a t.v. set!
As you might imagine, Leslie and Jess are drawn to one another since they both share "outsider" status. It turns out that Leslie has a rich, fertile imagination born of reading lots of books. She loans Jess books (including Narnia) and the two of them begin to spend all their time together after school in the woods near their home. They even create a magic kingdom together, a secret place in the woods that no one else knows about. They build a "castle stronghold" with some old boards and name themselves ruler of the land, which Leslie christens Terabithia. To get into Terabithia, they must swing on a rope over a usually dry creek bed.
Paterson's deft writing beautifully captures the ordinary joys and longings of childhood. Jess and Leslie's voices sound so authentic that a handful of pages is all it takes for readers to feel they know them. Jess' voice is somewhat southern (Lark Creek is probably in Virginia; we know at least it's a relatively short drive into DC) and provincial, and Leslie has a simple, direct way of speaking that cuts to the heart of things. As queen of Terabithia, she loves to embroider royal language, something tongue-tied Jess admires intensely. I love their growing friendship in part because it reminds me of all the best friendships of my own childhood: those friends with whom you could share everything, silly and serious, those friends with whom you could just quietly be.
Necessary Plot Spoiler for Teachers and Parents
The book is lovely in every way and makes a wonderful read-aloud for children 10 and up. But parents and teachers should know that it takes a decided deep and difficult turn in the final four chapters. A sudden rain swells the creek bed the children swing over to get into their magic country. And on a day when Jess is not present, when he's off having a "perfect day" with his art teacher at the National Gallery (his first visit to an art museum) the rope breaks and Leslie does not make it across.
I place this information in the review not to spoil the story, but because I think parents and teachers need to know: this is one of the most honest children's books I've ever read on the subject of death and how one grieves the loss of a friend. Jess' grief is simply and touchingly rendered; it feels so achingly real, you can't help but cry in the final pages. I think one reason it feels so real is that Katherine Paterson herself was dealing with grief when she wrote it, not just her own grief, but most particularly trying to help her own young son grieve the loss of a dear friend. This is not her son's story; it's most decidedly fiction. But in the creating of these fictitious characters and world, Paterson was able to work through her own feelings and to help her son begin to work his way through his.
The story has no neat resolution, but in a beautifully poetic and symbolic way, we see that Jess finds the strength to continue to live...not diminished by the loss of his friend, but enriched by her memory and by all that he learned from their friendship. What makes the final scenes so powerful is that we are privileged to watch him walk in this newfound love of the world, a newfound realization of the preciousness of life -- and we see him begin to share it with those around him, especially his little sister May Belle, whom he used to mostly see as a pesky pest.
This is definitely a story that should be shared with any child who is learning to cope with real loss, on whatever level. Parents will likely want to read it first (and it's so beautiful you will not begrudge a minute of the reading time) in order to assess whether or not your child is ready for the emotional impact of the ending. This story gently teaches lessons about life, love and grief, and it does so in just about the most powerful way possible, through the medium of a story well-told.
I'm sorry I didn't find it in 1977, but I'm grateful I did find it at last. Bridge to Terabithia will always have a treasured place on my reading shelf.
~befus, 2006
This is a contribution to pestyside's Banned Books Write-Off. I'm not entirely sure why Bridge to Terabithia is often cited on banned book lists, but it is. There are a few instances of coarse language, most of which seem very authentic and appropriate to context. I suspect any concerns with language may be a pretext and the deeper issue is that some people are afraid of presenting the reality of death so honestly to children.
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