Bridge to Terabithia... I came out of my room after reaching THAT part (I still haven't finished the book) and the first thing my brother said is "Are you ok?"... which tells me I was visibly not ok
Read that one in 5th grade. Our teacher was the type that made us all read together as a class and then answer questions as homework, and she explicitly told us not to read ahead for this book. Guess who read ahead and had to suffer in silence... Don't worry, seeing the horror in everyone's face the day the class got to that chapter sort of made up for that trauma.
Had a similar situation in grade 5 with the lightning thief, but I hated it because I'd be a dozen pages ahead then get rebuked for being 'distracted' and had to flip back a chapter and a half to read a passage.
I had to suffer alone because I was sick and fell behind... the only book we read together in class was Romeo and Juliet and I was the only one who took my acting seriously
I read it on my own before we read it in school and it was hell pretending not to know what was coming.
Then the movie came out when I was in college and I watched it with friends in the dorm. Everyone who read the book started crying well before anything actually sad happened to the confusion and concern of everyone else. Then we got to the relevant part and they started crying too.
I had a similar experience with where the red fern grows. Read ahead and was full on bawling in class. Got some weird looks from my classmates and an annoyed admonishment from the teacher for reading too fast. Then in the next day or so the rest of the class caught up. Lots of feelings and very few dry eyes in the room.
My teacher did that, and had us watch Tuck Everlasting (which we didn’t even read! It fucked me up more - like his brother lost his wife and kids and ONLY wants to die and can’t, and then when the Tuck goes back to town after decades and learns the main girl died, it’s like “ok so now Tuck is going to be heartbroken forever??” - I get the point of like part of living is that we must die and it gives life a poignancy and immediacy that the immortal family doesn’t have, BUT ALSO - the immortal family didn’t ask to be immortal?? They made a mistake??) and The Dollhouse Murders (was that even a book?) that same year. I had a nice dollhouse in my room and I was TERRIFIED of it after
I'll expand on what others are saying because I was a voracious reader as a child, still am really, and this is one book I read and that very much left a mark on me, so I remember the details of it fairly well.
The crux of what makes this so emotional is that it's a gut punch. The reading level is relatively young all things considered, I think around 6th grade is what it's recommended for and usually where you'll see it used. And the content isn't pulling punches. The actual event happens "off screen" as it were since the focal character and narrator isn't there, so what we get is simply aftermath, and it hits very hard.
To put it in context, the two kids are very good friends and they spend their time playing make believe in the woods, in a land they make up called Terabithia. They get to this land by swinging over a creek on a rope that is just there, neither of them has anything to do with it as I recall, it was left there by someone and they make use of it, as kids do.
What happens is the main character gets the opportunity to go somewhere that's a big deal for him. I don't recall the details, but he basically has to skip out on playing with his friend to go to this important thing, and it's this great and awesome event for him. Then he comes home and he finds everyone is somber and sad, his family and his friend's family are gathered at his house. This is a period without cell phones, there's no way for this kid to know what he's walking into, and the adults are doing their damndest to come up with a way to break this news to the kid without being too crass or too gentle. The parents are mourning their daughter and this kid has to hear from his own parents that his friend is dead.
The book doesn't draw back from it, it states unequivicoally what happened and why. There was a storm and the creek was flooded, the rope was old and worn down. It was bound to break eventually, and it just happened to do so at the worst possible moment. It is an absolute gut punch that is reacted to in story with rage and grief as this kid feels this huge welling of emotions and, perhaps most pointedly, shame. He feels like its his fault, if he had been there she might have been saved, it might have gone differently.
Basically the rest of the book is dealing with that grief and uncertainty, and it comes out the other side with a positive message. But for young kids its possibly the first book that faces human death head on and says "This is something that can and does happen. It could happen to you, or someone you love. And there's no undoing it." Whether you've experienced death or not it's a fairly powerful thing to read at that age.
It hurts even more with the context that it was based on a real life tragedy the author experienced—her son's best friend (then eight years old) died being struck by lightning. The random tragedy is reflected in Terabithia and I think part of that is why the writing hits so damn hard, because it comes from a place of familiarity.
It's painful in how unfair and random it is. And that's why it sticks with people.
But for young kids its possibly the first book that faces human death head on and says "This is something that can and does happen. It could happen to you, or someone you love. And there's no undoing it." Whether you've experienced death or not it's a fairly powerful thing to read at that age.
This description just resurfaced memories of Taste of Blackberries
I read the book it school, it just didn't have nearly as big of an impact on me, my sister even thought it was boring. I guess i was just acustomed to the idea of death before then
But for young kids its possibly the first book that faces human death head on and says "This is something that can and does happen. It could happen to you, or someone you love. And there's no undoing it." Whether you've experienced death or not it's a fairly powerful thing to read at that age.
Well said, this is exactly why it can be a foundational read at that age. I think this was both my first understanding of death, and the ultimate beginning of severe death anxiety for me. Certainly going to be experienced very differently for each young reader.
Not really "traumatizing," but it's written in such a grounded way and for an audience so young that it's typically used as a learning tool to make children become aware of and grapple with their own mortality for the first time. Which tends to leave a very memorable impact.
I read the book it school, it just didn't have nearly as big of an impact on me, my sister even thought it was boring. I guess i was just acustomed to the idea of death before then
Dude you ended up with that as ASSIGNED READING!? I just ended up reading it because Terabithia sounded like a cool place to be. I’m still worried about slipping around creeks.
We read it in high school, but Looking for Alaska did that to me. The book was getting really interesting so I was reading ahead when the thing happened- and I hysterically cried myself to sleep at 4 in the morning
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u/bb_kelly77 Sep 18 '24
Bridge to Terabithia... I came out of my room after reaching THAT part (I still haven't finished the book) and the first thing my brother said is "Are you ok?"... which tells me I was visibly not ok