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Bridge to Terabithia is one of the very classic books you could ever read about friendship, imagination, and reduction. And, with each of these components, the book won Katherine Paterson her very first Newbery Medal at 1978 (she won another for Jacob Have I Loved at 1981). However, like many other excellent children's books, it has come under controversial fire.

It happens to deal with some pretty hard subject matter, such as passing and religion (by way of example, some critics think Leslie's not a fantastic role model because she doesn't attend church), and it doesn't help that a few of the characters do some moderate swearing (origin).

But, it seems as though guards such as the book are much more passionate than criticisms.

"[...] inducing Bridge to Terabithia to be deducted from the literary bill of fare to young adults could do a great deal more than simply enable the censors to prohibit a high quality novel. It can sound a frighteningly clear clarion call to get a full-scale assault on imaginative literature during U.S. programs of research." (origin)

Whether you applaud Paterson for providing a voice to youth loss and despair or perhaps not, what some folks don't know is that Bridge to Terabithia is motivated by the true story of the writer's son and his best buddy. Paterson found herself not able to describe the reduction to her son and ended up writing Bridge to Terabithia. At a Q&A on her site, she states, "I wrote the book to attempt to make sense from a catastrophe that seemed senseless" (origin).

Unsurprisingly, over the decades Paterson has received plenty of fan mail that question the rather unconventional decision to write about the death of a principal character. In a 2005 interview, Paterson admitted, "When kids ask me why she had to die, I need to weep, because it's a question for which I don't have any answer" (origin). Both in life and in fiction, it seems, the reduction of a buddy like that can not be clarified or undone.

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