Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson is a great novel that tells a touching story about friendship and loss. This novel is easily relatable to any audience as most have felt like an outsider at some point in their lives. It is easy to fall in love with the characters and relate to their conflicts in the novel.

This is a perfect novel for the classroom as it has a great deal of symbolism for students to learn from. The symbolism in this book can be broken down during class discussions and further enhanced through a variety of comprehension activities. There are endless possibilities to using this novel in the classroom!

Accelerated Reader Level: 7.0

As stated in my previous post, the forward by William Goldman was a fantastic way of introducing this story to the reading public. I am going to mark this post with a spoiler warning because I will talk about events with in this introduction. 

William Goldman wanted to create some mystery to his book so he created S. Morgenstern or possibly the man exists. (The internet is telling me that the original book that William's abridged story is based on) glad I checked. 

Though if he made up what I originally thought as true events in his life doesn't matter, it only show cases his literary talent for  weaving layers of narrative. 

If this was only a literary devise,much like Hawthorn finding the scarlet letter in an old chest, it is well implicated.

The movie, which how I was introduced to this story has the old man read to the Yong sick boy whom would rather play a fantasy inspired choose your own adventure game on a computer running basic DOS doesn't hold the attention of the reader. Yes it allows Goldman to interject with things like; don't worry she isn't eaten by sharks at this point, to alleviate the fears of the small boy he is reading to. Though it doesn't come across the same way in the book. In the book you have the impression he is talking directly to you. The asides are written like author notes trying to stir your mind to think one way or another about the material.

I am unsure the story would have the same weight behind it if  it was presented in less direct point of view like setting up the story with having an opening scene of a father or grand father reading to their child, like seen in the movie.

From the perspective of some one whom saw the movie, loved the movie, told all my friends they most see this film as I am playing around; saying the famous lines "you killed my farther, prepare to die"; what I'm getting from the book is the writers voice over the story. He treats the story not as something he conceived (which may or may not be the case) but something he is improving on. That is what makes the book engaging and what will keep me reading it.