From: Nina Lindsay <linds_na>
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 10:19:22 -0700 (PDT)

On Thu, 19 Aug 1999, Megan Schliesman wrote:


"Bridge to Terabithia" was one of the most surprising books I read as a child, and it has haunted me ever since. I read it again every few years, and it changes each time, and is still the same. I think that
"unreliable narrator" is a good turn of phrase, and highlights Paterson's strength -- her characters are unreliable, in that they know more about their own feelings than they should. However, because their feelings are so reliable, the stories work. The storyteller's heightened, omniscent perception exagerrates the characters' self-awarness; but to the effect that the reader is looking through a microscope : and recognizes themselves.

At least, this was my experience reading "Bridge to Terabithia" as a ten year old. Maybe only because I was a similar child in many ways to Jess. The moment in the story that I knew this for certain (that I was like Jess) -- I will always remember -- is when Jess is driving away with Miss Edmunds, and realizes that he could have asked her to take Leslie along too, and then, that he is secretly glad he forgot to. This is a very natural feeling for a ten-year-old ... but one that would be very difficult, even impossible, for a ten-year-old to consciously admit. I don't think I would have been so aware of that kind of feeling as a ten-year-old; but as soon as I read it, I recognized myself -- and because it was Jess who thought it, and because he was the protagonist, it was okay.

This recognition became essential for the rest of the story to work ... What child has not purposefully carried out the fantasy of someone close to them dying? "What if ... " --your older brother died; and you got to have his room? --your mother and father both died; and the state granted you majority and you got to run the house? Or, the fantasy of dying yourself, and trying to imagine what it must feel like to not exist? These are all productive fantasies, but it's frightening to admit needing them. Reading through Jess's reactions to the death of his best friend allowed me, as a young reader, to carry out this fantasy fully, consciously, and safely. And I think that's what Paterson does in all her stories, whether or not they are about death-- she allows young readers to bring to consciousness the dangerous thoughts that we all have
 we all have to experience, in order to grow.

I read several of Paterson's books as a child, and when I re-read them now, I at once recall my intial perceptions of the story, and see Paterson's very adult manipulation of her characters. Perhaps adults reading her stories today for the first time see only the later, and so find the characters unsympathetic. But young kids do not -?n not, really-- see this.

Nina



Nina Lindsay, Children's Librarian Melrose Branch, Oakland Public Library 4805 Foothill Boulevard Oakland, CA 94601
(510)535V23 linds_na at oak2.ci.oakland.ca.us
Received on Thu 19 Aug 1999 12:19:22 PM CDT