Warning: Scary soap box moment —
I support the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week; however, this in no way implies that I do not think parents are the first people who should decide what their children may or may not read. Every parent should have the right to guide their children toward appropriate reading material, and to avoid any reading material that offends or is deemed inappropriate for whatever reason. Having said that, I support the creative works of authors, and of bookstores, schools and libraries for making these works universally available.
The scary soap box moment is over.
Challenged books are only vulnerable to outright banning if they are forgotten by those who love them. Newbery Award winning, Bridge to Terabithia, is a book that I most definitely love.
From author Katherine Paterson’s personal Web site:
[Question]
Why do you use swear words in your book, Bridge to Terabithia? We do not read them aloud in class, and yet we still understand the context of the sentence. What was your motivation to write Bridge to Terabithia? Where did the name Terabithia come from?[Paterson’s response]
Jess and his father talk like the people I knew who lived in that area. I believe it is my responsibility to create characters who are real, not models of good behavior. If Jess and his dad are to be real, they must speak and act like real people. I have a lot of respect for my readers. I do not expect them to imitate my characters, simply to care about them and understand them. I wrote Bridge to try to understand for myself the tragedy of Lisa Hill’s death, and, though I was not fully aware of it, to help me face my own death.I thought I’d made up “Terabithia”. I realized when the book was nearly done, that there is an island in “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” by C. S. Lewis called Terebinthia. I’m sure I borrowed that unconsciously, but, then, so would Leslie who loved the Chronicles of Narnia. And, by the way, Lewis got Terebinthia from the Biblical terebinth tree, so it wasn’t original with him either.
A story can be healing salve for the soul. A story can be a light in a dark place. A story can be a signpost or a milestone on the path of life. A story can be a life raft. A story can be a friend. A story can assume the place of a missing mother, father, sister or brother.
“The destiny of the world is determined less by the battles that are lost and won than by the stories it loves and believes in.”
—Harold Goddard
(The Meaning of Shakespeare)
There’s something about Bridge to Terabithia, in particular, that encourages me to be reflective about the value of storytelling. It’s a story full of “what ifs”:
What if Jess hadn’t been so needy and insecure: would he have become Leslie’s friend? What if Leslie’s parents hadn’t been so permissive: would she have gone to Terabithia alone? What if Miss Edmunds had invited Leslie to the art gallery: would Leslie have lived? What if Janice Avery hadn’t been a bully: would Jess and Leslie have come together? We could go on.
Bridge to Terabithia is, unsurprisingly, about building bridges. Jess and Leslie become friends (a bridge of sorts is built between them). Leslie’s intellectual parents move to the country (building a bridge between their daughter, Leslie, and the natural world). Jess and Leslie’s friendship builds a bridge between Jess and his adoring younger sister, May Belle. The bridge to Terabithia is a bridge between reality and fantasy, between the conscious and the unconscious and, ultimately, between life and death.
Katherine Paterson spares no one in giving both Jess and Leslie separate, yet distinct, pits of despair. They are both neglected by their families, though in different ways. The Aarons are hardworking farm folk with no time for a boy who loves to draw. The Burkes are focused literary types, self-involved enough to miss the signs that their daughter is floundering.
I have never found Terabithia itself, the fantasy refuge created by Leslie within which both she and Jess bond with one another and discover their inner strengths, to be completely convincing. But then again, I think that’s part of the plot. Leslie and Jess are strong individuals and creative in their own ways, but they are very young, and their gifts are newly sprouted seedlings. The great trunks, broad leaves and scattered acorns will come in time. If there is time. When Jess complains to Leslie that he can’t draw a picture of Terabithia because he ‘. . . can’t get the poetry of the trees,’ she says, ‘Don’t worry . . . You will someday.’ “He believed her because there in the shadowy light of the stronghold everything seemed possible.” Perhaps my adult perception that Terabithia is not well formed is the point.
Jess and Leslie and May Belle are three of the most vivid characters I have ever read life into. Katherine Paterson wrote life into them – complex, painful, ecstatic, enigmatic life. I’m glad she did.
8 responses to “Challenged Book: Bridge to Terabithia”
I completely agree with your “soap box moment”. I have no problem with parents who want to limit what their children read – but they have no right to limit what my or other people’s children read.
I first read Bridge to Terabithia while lying flat on my back for 2 weeks waiting for back surgery. It is one of the books that has remained with me.
If you want to read a banned book, read the last book banned in the USA, namely, Fanny Hill, last banned in 1963.
No books have been banned in the USA for about a half a century. See “National Hogwash Week.”
Thomas Sowell says Banned Books Week is “the kind of shameless propaganda that has become commonplace in false charges of ‘censorship’ or ‘book banning’ has apparently now been institutionalized with a week of its own.” He calls it “National Hogwash Week.”
Former ALA Councilor Jessamyn West said, “It also highlights the thing we know about Banned Books Week that we don’t talk about much — the bulk of these books are challenged by parents for being age-inappropriate for children. While I think this is still a formidable thing for librarians to deal with, it’s totally different from people trying to block a book from being sold at all.” See “Banned Books Week is Next Week.”
And then there’s Judith Krug herself who created BBW:
“Marking 25 Years of Banned Books Week,” by Judith Krug, Curriculum Review, 46:1, Sep. 2006. “On rare occasion, we have situations where a piece of material is not what it appears to be on the surface and the material is totally inappropriate for a school library. In that case, yes, it is appropriate to remove materials. If it doesn’t fit your material selection policy, get it out of there.”
Lastly, remember the ALA does not oppose book burning when doing so would interfere with its political interests. Go see what Judith Krug said about Cuban librarians: “American Library Association Shamed,” by Nat Hentoff.
Fanny Hill was the last book to be banned by the U.S. government. Other books have been banned by other groups. Thomas Sowell and others have every right to celebrate an alternative to Banned Books Week and they have the right to call it “National Hogwash Week,” or anything else that tickles their fancy. The ALA and many other organizations and individuals work to keep censorship from becoming institutionalized. “Institutionalized” freedoms are not the problem. Libraries themselves are institutionalized conduits of free, uncensored reading material available to all.
I saw a bad word in this book (pg.15) it says “Not like stubby school crayons you had to press down on till somebody BITCHED about your breaking them.”
if you guys found anymore bad words pls. comment down in here with its pg. number because i would like to know were would you see them! thanks for ur kindness pls like it!
Plot Summary
This young adult novel by Katherine Patterson tells the story of two friends, social outsiders, who find solace, identity, and self-confidence in each other and in their combined imagination. The protagonist of the story is Jesse Aarons, the only boy in a family of five children, mostly ignored by the rest of the family. An artistic boy, Jesse feels that he disappoints his father, who he thinks doesn’t understand him, and that he is an outsider at school.
Things change when Leslie Burke moves in next door. Her parents are writers, and Leslie has grown up differently than most of her peers – for example, she doesn’t own a TV. Jesse and Leslie quickly become close friends. Jesse is able to share his love of art and drawing with Leslie, and Leslie is able to share her love of fantasy stories with him. They create an imaginary world past the creek that lines both their properties. The world is called Terabithia, and they rule over it, fighting against monsters and building self-confidence. It is the imaginary play that allows them to face real fears, such as family conflicts and the bullies at school.
Things change again, however, when Jesse goes to the National Gallery of Art one day with his music teacher. Leslie goes to Terabithia alone, using the rope swing over the creek as they always do. The rope breaks, however, and she drowns in the creek. Jesse makes a memorial wreath for Leslie, and builds a bridge over the creek. This allows him to take his younger sister into Terabithia, making her the new Queen and passing on the legacy that the two friends began.
i love the book bridge to terabithia, I used to read it all the time right before I go to bed.
Hello Jessica. I love it, too. It’s one book I will never tire of rereading.