Lewis, like Paterson, often centered religious themes and explorations of Christianity, existentialism, and the afterlife in his works for children and adults alike.‘ Bridge to Terabithia’ invites readers into the life of the troubled Jesse Aarons from a small town called Lark Creek. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, books which Leslie has read, loved, and used as models for her own construction of the mythical realm of Terabithia. Terabithia also contains repeated references and allusions to C.S. Terabithia also may have inspired later young adult novels which seriously considered the ideas of existentialism and mortality, such as Natalie Babbitt’s 1985 novel Tuck Everlasting. The latter of which was published in 1961, over a decade before Terabithia, and focuses on a young Ozark boy’s doomed but deep love for his twin pet hounds. White’s classic Charlotte’s Web and Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. Books that include similar reckonings with serious and often sad themes include E.B.

Paterson is the Vice President of the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance and currently lives in Vermont.īridge to Terabithia has long been a celebrated cornerstone of contemporary children’s literature-but upon its publication, it was seen as controversial and banned from many schools because of its profound, mature themes concerning death, grief, religion, and the afterlife. Paterson is also the author of Jacob Have I Loved and The Great Gilly Hopkins, the latter of which won the National Book Award. The book won the 1978 Newbery Medal and has since become a staple of contemporary children’s literature. In 1977, Paterson’s novel Bridge to Terabithia was published to widespread acclaim. She later traveled to Japan, and her experiences there formed the basis for her first published novel, 1973’s The Sign of the Chrysanthemum, which is set in 12th-century Japan.

As Paterson grew older, however, she developed a love of language, reading, and writing, and graduated summa cum laude from King College, a private Presbyterian college in Tennessee, in 1954. During the war, the family moved around the American South incessantly, spending time in North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia-an experience that disoriented young Paterson, whose first language was Chinese. Her father was a preacher who headed a local boys’ school-but during the Japanese invasion of 1937, the family was forced to return to the United States. Katherine Paterson was born Katherine Womeldorf to Presbyterian missionary parents stationed in Qing Jiang, China.

Book of terabithia