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We do have trouble dealing with death, but it's the one thing that is guaranteed we are all going to have to do, and we are going to have to face it many times before we die ourselves.

One of the first things I heard about the Terabithia movie was that it was going to be a "sprawling fantasy adventure," and they had hired a big special effects team for it, and my initial reaction was to sort of recoil at this&mdash?

Paterson: Your initial reaction? (laughs) What do you think mine was?

I don't know, you tell me?

Paterson: Well, that was the thing I was most afraid of. And if you've seen the trailer, my word. I'm just telling everybody I know, "Don't see the trailer, don't see the trailer." Because it's exactly what the trailer ends up making you think, is that it's this glorified fantasy adventure with nothing but special effects, and that's not what we ended up with in this movie.

The story is ultimately about friendship … and loss

We've ended up with a movie about a friendship between a boy and a girl who develop an imaginary kingdom, and the girl dies, and the boy has to deal with his loss, which is the story of the book. Now of course, because it is currently 2007 and not 1977, when you make a certain type of movie, people expect special effects—and so they've got some special effects. But I don't think they've ruined the movie. (laughs)

The one good thing that they managed to convey to me—and I can't guarantee that this will be conveyed to everyone who sees it—was that Terabithia is not another land, that Terabithia is absolutely coming out of the children's imaginations. It leads into the Terabithian scenes in such a way that I was convinced that they were creating this other land, which to me was masterful.

Do you think this movie might stifle the imagination, or replace it, or perhaps be a stimulus to the imagination in some other way?

Paterson: I wish I could answer that question. Of course I hope it will stimulate the imagination. I'm not sure that a movie can ever do that as well as a book, simply because you have a big picture right there in front of you, that you're not allowed to make for yourself.

Looking around at children's literature today, what's your impression? Any particular books or writers that you like?

Paterson: There are a lot of books I like, some wonderful writers, and I always hesitate to give names because I have so many friends in the business, and they say, "Why didn't you name me?" (laughs) There are some writers I really like, and I just think there's such fine writing going on right now. There's a lot of schlock, too, and publishers say, "Well, we have to publish the schlock so we can have enough money to publish the good things," but schlock tends to crowd the good things off the shelf, so I'm not too happy with that.

Is there more schlock now than there used to be?

Paterson: Oh yeah. Lots more schlock! (laughs)

Can you name any names there, or do you also have friends writing the schlock?

Paterson: (laughs) I'm not naming names anywhere! They know who they are!

© Peter T. Chattaway 2007, subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. Click for reprint information.

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