#i wouldn't say a book ever messed me up. but theres themes and emotions i would have loved to voice so I could understand better

[radmista]

The thought process the people like the second to last rb have is so pathetic imo. This is how you know someone explicitly only reads fanfiction online, especially with the comment about how there should be trigger/content warnings and saying what topics will be in there. First off, books have this, it's called the summary on the back. I know that poster probably meant something akin to AO3 tags like "|Charater Death|, |uncomfortable situations|, |parents not being perfect ideal parents and being flawed people|, |mean classmates|" type shit. Which is just ridiculous. The point of books like these are to grow your mind, to expand your world view and thinking, to expose you to as many different perspectives and points of view. To portray suffering, sadness, hardship, death, betrayal, etc in safe controlled environments. It's not child endangerment or abuse to make children sad reading a sad book. You cannot raise children in a bubble away from life's unpleasantness because you don't have a reading level beyond 5th grade and only want easily digestible material.

Children sometimes need to be exposed to content that they would not pursue on their own, nor would ever learn about without required reading. The level of anti-intellectualism being spouted here is unbelievable. This whole "protect kids from the harshness of the world" is why some kids never learn about the Hollocaust or the horrific things done to minorities in the USA. I never would have learned about the Japanese camps during WWII if I hadn't been required to read 'Farewell to Manzenar'. This was an incredibly sad book to read. It weighed on me, and it was depressing. It took me forever to finish reading it because I kept having to stop. But it made me think. It literally revealed to me a side of history I had no idea about in 6th grade and gave me the perspective of a Japanese-American girl growing up in a time rampant with hatred and racism against her family. When else would I have gotten that as young as I did. Required reading also helps prepare kids for what they may be learning later in the curriculum, which was actually why it was required reading at my school, our history classes touched on this later in the year.

I'm actually really surprised people are upset about Bridge to Terabithia. Yeah, one of the main characters dies. It's not like she is killed explicitly in the book with full descriptions or killed in a horrifically graphic and violent way. No, she died in a way that was a complete accident, "offscreen" so to speak, she fell and hit her head by the river and either that killed her or she drowned. (I can see how for some kids that may be more upsetting than something outlandish and graphic since it is such a regular everyday way to die.)

The boy in the book feels rage, guilt, grief, denial, and sorrow. He goes through all the emotions a reader would also go through if they were also particularly attached to Leslie. And that's part of the beauty of reading. That's also why this book is still recommended to kids or on their school reading lists: because it's on their level. It's target audience is 4th-5th grade readers, its not anything higher level than what a child that age can digest and understand. And when it delivers something emotionally painful, we are there with the boy and his emotions and with him learn a little about life and how it goes on.

Maybe I'm a stoic reader, but Leslie's death didn't wrack me with sadness. I was shocked, as I'm sure was the intention, that she died. We are delivered the news in the same way the boy is, after having a good day with his teacher and being blindsided with the death of his best friend. We are there with him in his surprise and confusion, his denial- that his parents are being cruel and lying to him. We're there with him when he runs to the river he and Leslie crossed over every day after school only to find the rope broken just like his parents said. The book quite literally does not leave kids high and dry without emotional follow through or resolution. Her death isn't the shocking twist ending that now a kid had to sit with like a stone in their stomach, forever wondering what happens. There are still chapters after she dies that you are with the boy as he tries to return to school and his normal life without her. As I recall, she dies 3/4 of the way into the book.

As I recall, he learns how to honor her memory and the things she and him created. He grows and adapts, and we, the readers, learn and grow with him. We see him form new relationships. We see the goodness in humanity as he deals with this tragedy early in his life. We leave him when he is able to go back to the place Leslie and he played, where he's built something new and treasured in memory of her. BtT leaves off on a hopeful note, I'd even say a cheerful one even if it's bittersweet. The book shows kids a life experience they hopefully won't have that young, but introduces them to tragedy and love and loss and how this boy dealt with it. Books allow us to see and live experiences we may never have, they allow us to expand our mind. These are critically important things for kids to do when their minds are still young. Books like these are how you can properly prepare your kids for life. Sheltering them from feeling sadness and negative emotions does not help them at all, and will just leave them stunted emotionally and intellectually.