Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
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Book Reviews of Bridge to Terabithia
Book Review: Bad Moments
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is about a girl and a boy making friends and having a wild imagnation. At the end be prepared because this book will make you cry.When Chirstmas comes Jess gives Leslie a little surprise.If I was to grade it I would give it a 4 out of 5.I recommand you read it.Book Review: Life is About Changes
Summary: 3 Stars
This is considered a banned book because of "anti-religion, language, and discussion of death."
*** READER BEWARE: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS***
This book was about a lonely boy named Jesse Aarons, with no real friends or purpose in life other than being the fastest kid in the fourth and fifth grades. Jess then meets his soon-to-be best friend, Leslie Burke, when her family moves into the nearby farmhouse. She enlightens him, so to speak, and the story evolves as Jess begins to grow and change from this friendship. They create a make-believe land in the woods called Terabithia. After it rains for days on end in the early spring, the creek near Terabithia is overflowing with a swift, dangerous, icey current. Jess is dreading going to Terabithia that morning and ends up going to a museum instead with his favorite teacher and when he returns from "the best day of his life" he finds that Leslie had tried to cross the creek and drowned.
This story went from being about Jess and Leslie growing in their friendship to the abrupt end of it with no explanation and no chance to say good-bye and how Jess dealt with that. It did briefly talk about religion, but nothing in my opinion was controversial about it - it merely stated the fact that some children go to church and believe in God and some are taught that you will burn in hell if you do not believe in God/Jesus and die, while other children/families do not believe this. To me, this is a fact of life, because not everyone holds the same belief system and children will run into this during their lives. I did not see anything anti-religious about it, in fact I agreed when Jess was worried about Leslie's afterlife and Jess's dad said, "God isn't going to let a little girl burn in hell." And yes, the book discusses death, but death is also a fact of life and children will experience death in their lives at some point, but it is always up to the parent to review the book first and make sure it is appropriate for their own child because a parent should know what their child can and cannot emotionally handle. This book can be a great tool for discussing some of these issues with the child reading it and to discuss family values and morals that may or may not align with the book's.
Book Review: Young readers don't like being preached to anymore than you or I do
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a book with a mission, and with an agenda to accomplish. I did not like this book one bit when I was made to read it, and I always loved books. I was the kid you couldn't get to play a video game with you because I was probably reading a book 4 grade levels above me. I sympathize with the young reviewers who say they didn't like it either.
It *is* a boring book, for kids. Young reviewers are not being petulant or exercising undeveloped literary judgment when they say so. Adults may be compelled by interior drama and socio-economic details. I was merely confused and bored. The class/wealth issues with the families were completely lost on me. And when the climax of the book occurred, I remember being really *really* pissed. I was enough of a reader to know what the writer did there, and transparently why: to "teach" me about something I "needed" to know about the unfairness of life. No, really?
It's heavy handed, and any honest child knows that, and resents being tricked.
This is still a worthwhile book for young readers. A number of kids will always love it every year. But if some young people tell you they don't like the book, it isn't because it "breaks all the childhood rules" of living in a death-denying fantasy world. It's because it's a transparent, heavy-handed, didactic tome and kids don't like being tricked or preached to anymore than you or I do.
Book Review: What can I say?
Summary: 3 Stars
In the Bridge to Terabithia Jess is a 5th grade boy who loves to run. Jess spent a lot of his summer running so when the day that the 5th grade boys raced at school he would win and finally stand out. The day of the race was finally there some of the 5th grade boys got the starting line. All of a sudden Leslie the new girl, joined them in the race . The race started and all of them took off jess was in the lead but Leslie passed him, and ended up beating jess and the rest of the boys. This started a great friendship between Leslie and jess, which was full of excitement, sadness, and adventure.Book Review: WHY WOULD YOU ALLOW YOUR CHILD TO READ THIS??
Summary: 1 Stars
My daughter got this for her birthday. I hated this book!! The story is fine. Maybe kids might get something deep from this but I doubt it. From the first page, the characters are all dark and ugly to each other. There is no respect shown for any authority figure in the book from parents to teachers. There is no love or respect between any siblings. There are plenty of cuss words throughout the book. There are illusions to a child/teacher inappropriate relationship. There is a whole discussion about God d---- people to h---. The words in this book can't be typed in this review, so why would you allow your child to read them?? The death of the child holds no meaning, because I didn't feel anything for any of the characters and there's no great lesson in the death either. There are lots of references to killing people "by the childen"! Such things like "I'd like to kill him/her" said repeatedly, like it's ok to say that. The parents are portrayed as insignificant and stupid. There are illusions that the boy may turn out gay because he draws. There are lots of mean remarks about fat people. I have no idea how this book got an award and why it has 800 star reviews. I only know I am sick that my daughter got this book as a gift and read it before I checked it out. There is nothing edifying in this book whatsoever and I'm probably on damage control for the next 6 months with my child.