(INBT) Lesson Topic 1: Ready to Read

In this course, we will read and analyze the novel titled Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. We will examine a different type of setting for the novel. Remember that the setting is the time and place that the story takes place. The setting of the novel Bridge to Terabithia alternates between fantasy and reality, so supernatural elements appear in this novel. Students should obtain a copy of the novel for the purpose of this course. You will be answering guided reading questions as you forge ahead in your reading. Study the terms for this module below. You will want to write these down in order to study for your test at the end of this module.

Practice

Now, practice the literary terms using the flashcards below.

The People of the Appalachian Mountains

During the 1970s, the United States signed a peace treaty with the North Vietnamese government, ending our country's involvement in the Vietnam War, a conflict that was opposed by many U.S. citizens. Dissatisfaction with their leaders' determination to fight this war was one of the factors thought to cause many young Americans to join the counterculture. The counterculture rebelled against many of the values generally supported by the middle class. Young people chose clothing that was very different from that worn by business people and community leaders. They developed their own distinctive music, which was foreign to the ears of the older generation, and they protested, or openly disagreed with, the actions of persons who controlled government agencies and big corporations. In this novel, the people of a rural community outside the nation's capital are suspicious of the city family that moves into a run-down farmhouse nearby, calling them hippies.

The term "hippies" refers to the young people of the late 1960s and early 1970s who disregarded the fashions and mannerisms of the middle class. Typically, they wore their hair long and wore unconventional clothes. The rural community to which the urban family moves is located within the large region known as Appalachia. Appalachia is the region in the eastern United States comprising the Appalachian Mountains from south central New York to central Alabama. It includes, therefore, parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. The Appalachian range is the oldest mountain system in the United States, older than the large mountain ranges in the West.

Novel Summary of Bridge to Terabithia

Jesse (a.k.a. Jess) Aarons, the only boy in a family of five children, lives in rural southwest Virginia. His mother favors his sisters Brenda, Ellie, May Belle, and Joyce Ann, while his father works in Washington, D.C., and therefore spends little time with his children. May Belle, the second youngest sister, adores and admires Jesse. Leslie Burke is an only child who moves from Arlington, Virginia, to the same area as Jesse. Her parents, both writers, are wealthy.

Jess and Leslie soon become close friends. Jess shares his secret love of drawing with Leslie, and Leslie shares with Jess her love of fantasy stories. With this new and powerful friendship, the two children create an imaginary kingdom in the woods near their homes, accessible only by a rope swing over a creek. They name the kingdom Terabithia and declare themselves king and queen, and they spend every day after school there. In Terabithia, they are able to face their real-world fears, such as that of the seventh-grade bully Janice Avery. Leslie gives Jess a drawing pad and a set of watercolors and a tube of paint as a birthday gift, and Jess gives Leslie a dog whom she names Prince Terrien or "P.T." for short. They consider P.T. to be the royal protector, Prince of Terabithia, and, due to his puppyish antics, the court jester.

Jesse has a crush on his young music teacher, Miss Edmunds. The central crisis occurs when Jesse accompanies Miss Edmunds to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and Leslie goes to Terabithia alone. The rope breaks as she is swinging over the rain-swollen creek. Though a good swimmer, Leslie falls into the creek and drowns, possibly due to a head injury. Jesse can overcome his grief only with the strength and courage that his friendship with Leslie had given him.

He attempts to deal with his grief by going back to Terabithia alone to make a memorial wreath for Leslie. During his ceremony, he hears a cry for help and finds May Belle caught in the midst of a fallen tree that she had been trying to use as a bridge across the creek. He helps her out of danger and rescues her.

Leslie's grief-stricken parents soon decide to leave the area. As Mr. and Mrs. Burke are leaving, Jesse asks to take some of their wooden planks from their back porch. They say he may have anything left in the house; thus permitted, he goes down to Terabithia to build a bridge. After he finishes the bridge, he takes May Belle over it and decides to make her the princess of Terabithia.

Meet the Author: Katherine Paterson

She was born Katherine Womeldorf in Qingjiang, China, to Christian missionaries George and Mary Womeldorf. Her father was a principal at Sutton 690, a school for girls, and traveled throughout China as part of his missionary duties. The Womeldorf family lived in a Chinese neighborhood and immersed themselves in Chinese culture. When Katherine was five years old, the family was forced to leave China during the Japanese invasion of 1937. The family moved to Richmond, Virginia for a short while before returning to China to live in Shanghai. In 1940, the family was forced to flee again, this time to North Carolina.

Paterson's first language was Chinese, and she initially experienced difficulty reading and writing English. She overcame these challenges and, in 1954, graduated summa cum laude with a degree in English from King College in Bristol, Tennessee. She then spent a year teaching at a rural elementary school in Virginia before going to graduate school. She received a master's degree from the Presbyterian School of Christian Education (Richmond, VA), where she studied Bible and Christian education. Paterson had hoped to be a missionary in China, but its borders were closed to western citizens. A Japanese friend pushed her to go to Japan instead, where she worked as a missionary and Christian education assistant. While in Japan, Paterson studied both Japanese and Chinese culture, which influenced much of her subsequent writing.

Paterson began her professional career in the Presbyterian Church by teaching Sunday school curriculum for fifth- and sixth-grade students. In 1966, she wrote the novel Who Am I? While continuing to write, she was unable to get any of her novels published. After being persuaded, Paterson took an adult education course in creative writing during which her first novel was published. Her first children's novel, The Sign of the Chrysanthemum, was published in 1976. A Japanese fairy tale, it is based on Paterson's studies in Japan. Bridge to Terabithia, her most widely read work, was published in 1977. Bridge to Terabithia was highly controversial due to some of the difficult themes but remains among the most popular books she has written.

Some of her other books also feature difficult themes such as the death of a loved one.

How to Acquire the Novel

There are several options for obtaining the novel. Students can obtain an audio download, a tablet download, or a paperback version of the novel. 

How do I Prepare to Read?

Reading requires preparation. Planning ahead when reading a novel can keep students on track so that they do not get behind on the reading. Students will be required to finish Bridge to Terabithia three weeks before the end of the semester. You will be required to read two to three chapters per module and answer and submit the reading question responses.

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