Bridge+to+Terabithia

“Bridge to Terabithia” Winner of Newbery Medal
 * 1) 8 on American Library Association List

**Bibliographic Data**

 * **Author:** Katherine Paterson
 * **Illustrator:** Donna Diamond
 * **Publisher:** HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
 * **Publication Date:** October 21, 1977
 * **Genre:** Children’s fiction
 * **Age range:** 12-15 years old
 * **Language:** English
 * **Hardcover:** $5.99
 * **Pages:** 128
 * **ISBN** 0-06-440184-7



**Summary:**
Jesse Aarons is a fifth grade boy who feels lonely and hasn’t been getting along with his family. He loves to run because it is a way for him to deal with his frustrations and that is how he meets Leslie Burke on the first day of school. She beats him in a race, and at first he is embarrassed and angry for not winning, but after sitting with her on the bus, they realize they have a lot in common and Jesse finds her tomboyish ways and witty personality intriguing. Since she is the “new girl” in town and doesn’t have many friends like Jesse doesn’t, they end up spending a lot of time together and create an imaginative land in the woods they call “Terabithia”. They go there every day until Jesse leaves for a field trip with his teacher and comes back to find Leslie has drowned. He is devastated by her death and blames himself at first, since he wasn’t there to help. However, he gets closer with Leslie’s family and realizes what a special person she really was and how honored he was to have her as a friend. He realizes what he has gained by having her in his life for that short time and has also become a stronger, more courageous person because of her compassion and bravery.

**Book Review:**
I love this book! It is meaningful, suspenseful, and a great story of friendship and imagination. It is 128 pages so it takes a bit longer to read than a shorter story would but it is so captivating that readers will want to keep turning the page and read several chapters in one sitting. The main characters are relatable to children in fifth grade and it shows how important it is to be a kind friend to someone who is going through a personal struggle.

**Author Biography:**
Katherine Patterson is a well-known American author of children’s novels. She was born on October 31, 1932 in China and when she was five years old when she moved with her family to Virginia. Since her first language was Chinese she had some difficulty reading and writing when she came to America. However, she clearly rose above the challenges, graduating summa cum laude with a degree in English from King College in Tennessee. She later earned her Master’s degree in Virginia. Her career in writing began when she wrote the novel “Who am I” in 1966 that was not published at first but it inspired her to take an adult creative writing course. Her first children’s novel was published in 1976 and from there she had great success as a writer. She has won two Newbery Medals and two National Book Awards.

Character Development:

The most prominent theme in the novel is the development of the main character, Jesse Aarons. From the beginning of the story, readers see him as a frustrated, lonely, slightly depressed preteen, who ever since first grade was seen by his classmates as, “That crazy little kid that draws all the time” (4). He feels distant from his family because they pressure him to comply with numerous chores and responsibilities since he is the only son, and they disregard his personal interests such as art. Running is his outlet. However, when Leslie Burke comes into his life, she changes him with her kind nature and support. She says, “We need a place just for us…It would be so secret that we would never tell anyone in the whole world about it” (38). She even buys him a paint set, and this is when Jesse feels accepted for who he is as an individual. Leslie not only allowed him to express his imaginative and creative side, but spending so much time with her, Jesse’s tough attitude begins to change, and he becomes more sensitive and encouraging as she is, evidenced by the care he shows for his younger sister May Belle. After Leslie dies, Jesse realizes the positive changes he has made and does not regress back to his old negative attitudes. Paterson writes, “Now it was time for him to move out. She wasn’t there, so he must go for both of them. It was up to him to pay back to the world in beauty and caring what Leslie had loaned him in vision and strength. As for the terrors ahead—he did not fool himself that they were all behind him” (126). In the end, Jesse continued to grow as an individual and was an extremely loving, supportive brother and son.

**Related Link:**
This is a link to the 2006 Disney movie trailor based on Paterson's novel, "Bridge to Terabithia".

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