Mercedes Solis Blog: Readers Response

PART ONE

Paterson, K. (1977). Bridge to Terabithia (I. Diamond, Illus.). Thomas Y. Crowell.

The genre of this book is realistic fiction, and it is intended for grades 4th -8th, ages 9-13.

PART TWO

For the first time reading this book, I was pleasantly surprised on how much i enjoyed this book. It was a book that touches on friendship, imagination, and loss. I feel like this book is perfect for the intended age group and can really help students get through high school. I keep thinking of how this book would've prepared me for what i was going to endure during my high school years. I just remember losing classmates due to gun violence and drugs and nobody was there to talk to us or help us get through the traumatizing times. Maybe had i read this book, i would have experienced grief in some way rather than in none at all. This book touches on issues like grief and loss. It can help with coping with unexpected death and the emotions that follow. It also touches on family relationships. Many can relate to the unspoken emotions in families. Some prompts I could use when reading this book with children are: How can we help someone who is grieving? What do you think the bridge to Terabithia represented for Jess and Leslie? And, if you could create a world like Terabithia, what would you create? What would it be like?

PART THREE

Some critics might say this story starts slowly but ends so tragically. Some parents might think this story might be too much tragedy for their children to handle. However, I think this story can really resonate with young readers and can prepare them for loss. Some also might criticize the fact that the story was told from Jess's perspective, so Leslie's character might not have been explored enough. However, i feel as if it was necessary to feel the pain he was going through allowing readers to feel empathy.

PART FOUR

This book would be perfect to introduce to my students, to expose them to the friendship and loss that is expressed in this book. This can really help students relate to things that are happening outside of school.

Lesson Objective:

After reading the book Bridge to Terabithia, students will write about how they would help a classmate like Jess by sharing examples in a group discussion with the teacher’s guidance.

Discussion questions: