i am joined by katherine paterson.ds. including it one for today's velshi book club read, bridge to terabithia. >> thank you for having me on. it's a real pleasure. >> this is the first time that many young readers are confronted with the idea of death. talk to me about why you thought it important to broach that topic with literature before many of these people will experience it in life. >> well, i did not start the book that way, i always felt that books are a wonderful rehearsal for what you are going to have to meet in life. we all have to meet death. can i tell you a story? >> yes. >> good friend wrote to me and said that he had a best friend growing up and they were always together until they went to separate colleges. he could not wait until thanksgiving when they could get together again and talk about their experiences when they were apart and he got home first and then he got the word that his best friend had been killed. on the way back home. he wrote to me and he said, i went to my shelf in my bedroom and

katherine paterson, the author of many young adult books. including today's velshi banned book feature, bridge to terabithia. that will do it for velshi today. we had so much fun, let's run it back tomorrow. i will be back here tomorrow morning with katie hobbs and some wild facts about the arizona abortion fight. velshi airs every friday and saturday morning from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. eastern. eastern. >>> im katie phang, here is the week that was. >> once in a generation look at a total solar eclipse. >>> parents convicted of their child's mass school shooting. getting them to sentence. >> you failed us parents. the punishment that you face will never be enough. >>> this 50 year battle took it out of federal hands and brought into the hearts, minds, and the vote of the people of each state. it is up to the states to do the right thing. >>> arizona supreme court ruled a total abortion ban on the books since the civil war is enforceable. >>> a new york judge rejecting his third effort in three days to get out of his hush money trial. >> t

i'm talking about the award- winning best-selling and beloved bridge to terabithia by katherine patersonid in rural virginia. it follows a 10-year-old and his new best friends. every day, justin leslie across the creek behind last week's house and enter a world of imagination and magic in their own making. until tragedy strikes and changes should just because life. exporters family, the reality of death and the power of friendship. 30 years after the initial publication in 1977, bridge to terabithia even became a movie. >> we need a place just for us. >> when we go back to school, there we are waiting. >> there we are. >> someplace better than just not being at school. what if there was a magical kingdom only we knew about? >> before next weekend, get the book. read the book. send us your comments and questions and memories of the first time you read bridge to terabithia. you can send that to me on my story@velshi.com. like i say, the velshi banned book club is nothing without you, it's members prefers to have today's meeting of the velshi banned book club. reza aslan brings us a kid's b