Article of the Week
Author of Bridge to Terabithia: Messages are Poison to Fiction (1000L)
Instructions: COMPLETE ALL QUESTIONS AND MARGIN NOTES using the CLOSE reading strategies practiced in class. This
requires reading of the article three times.
Step 1: Skim the article using these symbols as you read:
(+) agree, (-) disagree, (*) important, (!) surprising, (?) wondering
Step 2: Number the paragraphs. Read the article carefully and make notes in the margin.
Notes should include:
o Comments that show that you understand the article. (A summary or statement of the main idea of important sections may
serve this purpose.)
o Questions you have that show what you are wondering about as you read.
o Notes that differentiate between fact and opinion.
o Observations about how the writer’s strategies (organization, word choice, perspective, support) and choices affect the
article.
Step 3: A final quick read noting anything you may have missed during the first two reads.
Your margin notes are part of your score for this assessment. Answer the questions carefully in complete sentences unless otherwise instructed.
Student ____________________________Class Period__________________
Author of Bridge to Terabithia: Messages are Poison to Fiction
(Go to http://www.npr.org/2014/12/07/368020910/author-of-bridge-to-terabithia-messages-are-poison-tofiction to access the NPR audio presentation)
Katherine Paterson is the winner of two Newbery Medals and two National Book
Awards. Her best-sellers include The Great Gilly Hopkins, Jacob Have I Loved, and her
most famous book, Bridge to Terabithia.
Paterson was born in China to missionary parents. She tells NPR's Arun
Rath that she had an idyllic childhood until about the age of 5, when Japan
invaded China. "Those years were very scary years," she says.
Before she began writing, Paterson was herself a missionary — and
traveled to Japan, a country that, as a child, she'd seen as the enemy. In
her memoir, Stories of My Life, she writes about that decision, as well as
her relationship with her parents and the traumatic event that led to the
story in Bridge to Terabithia.
On living in Japan as a missionary
I, of course, really, truly longed to go back to China, and because I'm of a
missionary background and because I've not just inherited my parent's
faith but I have my own faith. I had a Japanese friend in seminary and she
suggested I go to Japan, which was a little bit horrifying for me because
my memory of the Japanese was pretty scary. And she said, "Well, if you
give the Japanese people a chance I think you'll get to love them."
And what I learned in those four years I spent in Japan was how
wonderful it is to be loved by people you thought you hated. I thought
maybe everybody in the world needs to have that experience, to be loved
by someone they thought they hated.
On whether her books have a message
I try very hard to stay away from the word "message," because I think it's
poison in fiction. I think you tell your story and then the reader gets to
decide what he or she will learn from your story. And if they don't want to
learn anything from it, that's their choice.
Notes on my thoughts,
reactions and questions as I
read:
On the girl who inspired the character of Leslie Burke
Lisa Hill, who was my son David's best friend when they were in the
second grade, was in many ways like I picture Leslie Burke. Lisa was
only 8 when she died; actually, she was struck by lightning. So there were
certainly similarities — she was bright and she was funny and she was
athletic and she was a wonderful kid. And it broke all of our hearts when
she died. ...
Notes on my thoughts,
reactions and questions as I
read:
The only way I could keep her alive was not to write that chapter. As I tell
in the book, going to a friend's house and the friend says, "How's your
book coming?" And I just blurted out that I was writing a story about a
friendship between a boy and a girl, and the girl was going to die, but I
couldn't let her die. And so I said to [the friend], "I think I just can't face
Lisa's death again."
Well, [she] knew very well that I, in that same year, had been operated on
for cancer. And she said, "I don't think it's Leslie's death you can't face. I
think it's yours." And I realized she was absolutely right. And if that was
true, then I would have to go home and finish the book because I would
have to face my own death. It was a great, freeing thing for me, to face
that death and then to move on.
On censorship and backlash against Bridge to Terabithia
You love your own book — I certainly love my books — and it's like
somebody attacks your child, initially. But then, the more you write the
more you realize that if a book has any power, it also has the power to
offend, and there were many people offended by this book. And I'm sorry,
because I don't like to offend people, but I know it was a story that I had
to tell, and I had to tell it in the way I told it.
So, I can't apologize for it. I can feel sad that it was hard for them.
NPR Staff, Author of Bridge to Terabithia: messages are poison to fiction. National Public Radio. December 7, 2014.
Comprehension questions – answers may be in phrases.
1. According to Paterson, what is the most wonderful thing about being a writer?
2. What is a memoir? List at least one other word in the same word family as memoir.
3. Define censorship as used in the article.
4. In what ways do books have power?
5. Define idyllic as used in the text.
Answer each question in one or more complete sentences.
Paterson describes going to Japan as horrifying. For what reason did she believe this? Does she still feel this
way today?
What issue did Paterson have with allowing the main character to die in Bridge to Terabithia? Whose death did
she truly need to deal with? How did Paterson discover this?
What does Paterson mean when she states it is “wonderful to be loved by people you thought you hated”?
Explain, in detail, why NPR chose “Messages are Poison to Fiction” as the title of this article. Cite directly
from the text or audio presentation to support your answer. Is it acceptable to read a book without getting a
certain message from the book?
This NPR article is presented in two formats – video and text. What are the advantages and disadvantages of
using different mediums to present this topic?
ADVANTAGES
DISADVANTAGES