Opposites Attract
A review of Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
By Julia A. Keirns
“The Bridge to Terabithia” is written by Katherine Paterson and illustrated by Donna Diamond. The version I own is actually the Special 40th Anniversary Edition published by HarperCollins Publishers. This book is listed as being for ages 10 and up, but it also states that it may not be appropriate for all ten-year-olds. There is nothing in this book that necessarily dates it, so I feel it is definitely contemporary and realistic. After all it was written 40 plus years ago and is still relevant today.
At first, I did not realize this book was so controversial and banned in a lot of schools. I had to research to understand why. I always felt that this book and movie was a wonderful depiction of true friendship, and how unusual and opposite personalities can benefit from a friendship with each other. Both main characters Jess and Leslie feel like outsiders in their homes, families and at school with the other children. They both deal with different types of issues and loneliness. Friending each other was the best thing either of them did in their life.
At first Jess does not like Leslie because she beat him in a running race. Eventually they do become friends. Leslie’s personality is to keep trying to be his friend. She isn’t the type of person to be rude or selfish about the fact that she beat him. She teaches him to not be so upset about it either. The teachable lesson is that we don’t have to dislike people just because they are better at something than we are.
This book teaches kids to use their imaginations. Even in the fifth grade when most kids just don’t seem to still have one. Imaginations are vitally important in life even at the middle school age.
This book also deals with tragedy. It is absolutely heartbreaking that Leslie dies of a tragic accident, but things like this do happen in real life and children must learn to deal with tragedy. They can’t just always be shown the pretty side of life and then be totally thrown off guard when something bad happens to one of their friends. Books like this one can be a great benefit to a child who has had to deal with a friend dying.
My own 12-year-old grandson had a close friend and neighbor boy his own age who died in a four-wheeler accident two years ago. I will never forget the day he and his entire class and school attended that funeral in the school gymnasium. He still mentions him sometimes. Children cannot be sheltered from every bad thing that happens in the world. It was a horrible accident and a horrible thing to experience, but they did it and they learned about life and death in a real way.
As I researched why this book has been banned from so many schools and libraries, I found out that a lot of the reason was simply due to bad language and cussing, but also one of the main reasons was because of the tragic and heartbreaking accident. I do not feel it is wise to totally shelter children from the real world. I understand limiting somewhat and trying to maintain their innocence as much as is reasonable, but what are we to do when a tragic accident or death of some sort affects a child in such a prominent way? School violence is real and any one of them could be a victim to it. Allowing them to read a story about how these two friends dealt with things, and how Jess deals with the death of Leslie is just one way I can think of.
When I tried to think of ways that teachers could use this book in the classroom, the first thing I thought of was friendship, and mainly teaching that opposite personalities can become friends and not to write someone off so quickly as a friend. What could we be missing? If I were a teacher of possibly middle-school, grades 4, 5, or 6, and I could get the book approved for my curriculum I would try to come up with activities where I could pair up children who are not friends to do a project, without them realizing I was pairing up opposites on purpose. Maybe this book would be a good way to pair up one boy and one girl for a project. Maybe have them come up with an imaginary world, what would they name it, and what kinds of characters would they have in their world. They could make a list of what each one of them likes to do and then try to come up with something they have in common.
Another idea is just to have them do character studies of Jess and Leslie and list things about each character. The students could write about why they feel these two became friends. Maybe it would be possible to use clips from the movie and ask the children to write about why the characters are acting in such a way, or how they might handle a certain situation differently.
This book could help prepare children for the harshness of other kids when moving up to Junior High School. Another lesson this book teaches is that it is ok to be different. We all have to admit that when we want to be a writer, or an artist, or something a little unusual, other people tend to let us know that our aspirations are not “normal.” Whereas being a doctor, or lawyer or accountant seems to be more accepted by society and more normal and nobody makes fun of those professions.
I loved reading this book and watching the movie. I feel it has a lot of lessons to offer and I hope it stays popular for a long time.