First Page: Bridge to Terabithia

Ba-room, ba-room, ba-room, baripity, baripity, baripity, baripity -- Good. His dad had the pickup going. He could get up now. Jess slid out of bed and into his overalls. He didn't worry about a shirt because once he began running he would be hot as popping grease even if the morning air was chill, or shoes because the bttoms of his feet were by now as tough as his worn-out sneakers.

"Where you going, Jess?" May Belle lifted herself up sleepily from the double bed where she and Joyce Ann slept.

"Sh." He warned. The walls were thin. Momma would be mad as flies in a fruit jar if they woke her up this time of day.
He patted May Belle's hair and yanked the twisted sheet up to her small chin. "Just over the cow field," he whispered. May Belle smiled and snuggled down under the sheet.

"Gonna run?"

"Maybe."

**********

Most friends will be unsurprised that Katherine Paterson's Newbery Medal-EarningBridge to Terabithia is the first page. As my widely pronounced Favourite Book of All Time, I've been known to keep gift-giving copies on-hand to pass out at the drop of a hat. Why? Apart from being a darned good book, it was also the book that changed the way I looked at books when I first read it many, many moons ago as a child.

Already a rather rabid reader -- those were the days of "When you finish your work, read", so I spent a lot of my day reading and waiting for the next lesson at school -- but when I read Bridge something new clicked. Books didn't just have to be entertaining. They could make you care about characters. You could feel something deeper than amusement as you flipped the pages. They could make themselves personal.

I can't tell you how many times I've read Bridge to Terabithia, both on my own and with kids. A few years ago, a wonderful friend gave for Christmas a copy which she'd sent to Katherine Paterson to be personalized and signed. Thanks, Jackie!

In the years since I read Bridge, I've come to appreciate Paterson the person more and more.  Through her books, interviews, speeches, and even social media content, she has frequently given me reason to pause and contemplate something or to be reminded of a deceptively simple truth.  She is undoubtedly someone I'd love to sit down with over tea.

For more information about Katherine Paterson and her books, visit her official website here.