Kid Lit, Pancakes and grief

For part of my Children’s literature semester at Southgate, I recently read Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. If you don’t want spoilers, stop reading now!

I already knew from the buzz around the film that a main character dies. But what I wasn’t prepared for was how perfectly one particlar moment captures that initial feeling of denial and detachment from what is happening when someone close to you dies. I never read the book as a child, and back then I would have been blissfully unaware of the impact of Jesse and those pancakes. I found have found it strange why such a thing was included, people don’t really focus on silly, selfish things in the middle of grief, do they?

But now I get it. When my dad died after a brief but brutal battle with cancer, all I could think about was all the “arrangements”, calling the doctor, cancelling his carers, making sure Mum was okay… the funeral… how I would have loved someone taking all that away and putting a plate of pancakes in front of me.

Sometimes to understand a children’s book, you need to read it as an adult.