Major Works

Bridge to Terabithia

Set in rural Virginia, Paterson’s Newbery Award winning novel tells the story of ten year-old Jesse Aarons, who might have been the fastest runner in the fifth grade. But when free-spirited Leslie Burke arrives in town, Jesse’s world is quickly changed. Leslie shares her imaginative ways with Jesse and together they establish Terabithia, their own kingdom in the woods. They both teach each other about art and religion and stories. While Jesse is in D.C. one day, Leslie is killed as the rope swing to Terabithia breaks over the creek. Saddened, Jesse searches for answers and eventually accepts her death.

“For the first time in his life he got up every morning with something to look forward to. Leslie was more than his friend. She was his other, more exciting self–his way to Terabithia and the worlds beyond.”

Inspirations:

• One of Lewis’s Narnia books, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, would later inspire Paterson when she named the imaginary land that Jess and Leslie created–Terabithia, an island in his work.
• Inspired by the death of her son David’s best friend, Lisa Hill, who was struck by lightning at the age of eight, as well as by the author’s own bout with cancer.
• Setting based on Lovettsville, Virginia, where Paterson spent a year teaching sixth grade.
• Christian influences: “Terabithia is the most obvious return to Eden in my books.”

Themes:

• religion, death, friendship, isolation
• “bridge-building,” both emotional and physical between characters

In her own words:

• In her Newbery acceptance speech Paterson says, “Of all the people I have ever written about, perhaps Jesse is more nearly me than any other, and in writing this book, I have thrown my body across the chasm that has most terrified me.”
• Paterson says, “I have been afraid of death since I was a child–lying stiffly in the dark, my arms glued to my sides, afraid that sleep would seduce me into a land of no awakening or of wakening into judgment.”
• Although the book was banned in Connecticut and Pennsylvania for “giving students negative views of life,” “making references to witchcraft,” showing “disrespect of adults.” and promoting an, “elaborate fantasy world that they felt might lead to confusion,” Paterson says, “I believe it is my responsibility to create characters who are real, not models of good behavior.“

Jacob Have I Loved

“Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated…” With her grandmother’s taunt, Louise knew that she, like the biblical Esau, was the despised elder twin. Caroline, her selfish young sister, was the one everyone loved. Growing up on a tiny Chesapeake Bay Island in the early 1940s, angry Louise reveals how Caroline robbed her of everything: her hopes for schooling, her friends, her mother, even her name. While everyone pampered Caroline, Wheeze (her sister’s name for her) began to learn the ways of the waterman and the secrets of the island, especially of old Captain Wallace, who had mysteriously returned after fifty years. The war unexpectedly gave this independent girl a chance to fulfill her childish dream to work as a waterman alongside her father. But the dream did not satisfy the woman she was becoming. Alone and unsure, Louise began to fight her way to a place where Caroline could not reach.