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Co-stars AnnaSophia Robb and Josh Hutcherson

In the book, Leslie knows Narnia and lends the Narnia books to Jess, and yet she seems unaware of the Christian elements there. Because when she goes to church and hears the story of Christ, it is completely new to her?

Paterson: Right. (laughs) That happens all the time with kids who've read Narnia who have no Christian background whatsoever. I actually had a friend who loved all the books and then felt betrayed when people told her it had Christian associations. And she didn't want it to be there, because she didn't believe that stuff. She said, "I loved the books until somebody ruined it for me!" Whereas for Leslie, it helps her to appreciate the story of Jesus.

So one could argue that your book is in some way more explicitly Christian, because it brings the Easter story directly into it?

Paterson: Well, I'm not going to argue that, because, I mean, I am a Christian, and as I say, I think who I am comes into the book. But I have certainly not tried to write a Christian pamphlet.

When the children play in Terabithia, they pray to the spirits there. As a Christian writing those scenes, how did you approach that?

Paterson: Leslie, who has no Christian background, has made this up; she thinks there is something very mystical in the grove, so she prays to the spirits of the grove. And when she tries to get Jesse to do this, the only kind of language he knows is biblical language. He's read the Bible, so his language comes out like biblical language, and hers comes out like fairy-tale language. But again, it's coming from the children's point of view, not from the point of view of me trying to [spell out] my religion.

Terabithia and Gilly Hopkins were on the American Library Association's list of the most frequently challenged books of the 1990s?

Paterson: Yeah, well. (laughs) People say, "Aren't you proud," and I say, "No, because it means every time it's challenged, some teacher or librarian is in trouble because of me, and I can't enjoy that." But the sad thing is, I think it's because people don't understand what a story is.

What is a story?

Paterson: A story is open-ended. A story invites you into it to make your own meaning. If you look at Jesus' parables, I think the Parable of the Sower is about the only one in which his disciples demand that the meaning be spelled out, but most of the stories Jesus tells are very open-ended. I mean, even with the Parable of the Prodigal Son, you get to the ending and you think, Well, did the big brother come in or not? Jesus leaves it open deliberately, for you to answer that. And that's what a story does. It's inviting you to identify yourself as a part of a story, and to come into it from where you are—and if you hear the same story over a period of years, you'll be in a different place, and the meaning is going to be different.

There's a trend lately to provide books and films for Christian audiences that are "safe for the whole family." Perhaps your books have been challenged because they're not necessarily "safe" for children. What do you make of the idea that children's books should be "safe"?

Paterson: Well, don't give them the Bible, then, because it's certainly not a safe book. Safety and faith are different things. If you want everything to be safe, then you can probably just totally do without the imagination. If you're so afraid of your imagination that you stifle it, how are you going to know God? How can you imagine heaven?

Why is it important to deal with death in a story made for children?

Paterson: It's sort of a practice [before we deal with death in real life]. Some people say, "Well, my child's friend died, so I gave him a copy of Bridge to Terabithia," and my internal reaction is, "You know, it's too late." I think books give us emotional practice.

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