Seeing Jess in the aftermath of Leslie’s death prepared many of us for what loss would feel like, the unsparing pendulum swinging between the good days and the bad. I didn’t know then that Leslie’s death and Jess’ experience of it would feel much like how my own loss would feel in the many years to come – random and senseless. But (spoiler alert) after Leslie fell to her death when the rope they used to swing to Terabithia snapped, I was shocked. Inspired by the magic they brought to that wooded glade, I once made my own Terabithia in a circle of tall trees in my backyard while playing outside with my friends. 'Bridge to Terabithia,' by Katherine Patersonįarm boy Jess Aarons and imaginative, bright-eyed new girl Leslie Burke become friends and create Terabithia, a fantasy kingdom in the woods. In the hands of a trusted teacher who can guide students through difficult conversations, this story has the power to push readers into uncomfortable but important spaces and allow students whose experiences are often ignored in classrooms to be seen – all through the lens of an uproariously funny teen. And it examines a dimension of diversity that’s often forgotten – disability. It shows tribes as part of the current fabric of our nation rather than merely part of history. While the classroom offered a whitewashed, sanitized reality of Native Americans’ experiences, this book offered me a glimpse into the systemic oppression Native communities have faced since colonization. While I cannot fully understand Junior’s experience, I, as a person of color at an extremely white school, saw myself in his battle to explore identity in an environment that seeks to erase it.
As Junior struggles to find his place in a school where the only other Indian is the mascot, he grapples with generational poverty and discrimination.
I first read the story of Junior as he leaves his school on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington for an all-white school during Banned Books Week in middle school. 'The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,' by Sherman Alexie
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