I bought this book because I remembered loving the story as a child. I reread it because some of the details seemed fuzzy to me. I was surprised at how different the details were from my memory. The basic story line I remembered by the how of things were off. I still think it was a good book, and I would say this is a great book for youth. I still have fond memories of what I thought Terebithia looked like. I would recommend that parents have their children read it, I believe it would be a good starting point for a discussion on loss.

Bridge to Terabithia By Katherine Paterson in the country back in 19 hundreds the main character Jess meets a girl his age that's new to town. Later on, they become very close friends almost jointed at the hips. Unfortunately an accident occurs that changes Jess and Leslie's life forever. A life lesson that a reader could take away from this book is that bullying is rude, but getting revenge is worse because you don’t know about their past their cause for bullying. Janice Avery bullies all the little girls including May Belle, Jess’ little sister. Than Jess and Leslie got back at Janice by write a love letter pretending to be the guy she likes and having her be stood up “‘Did you know her father beats her?’ ‘Lots of kids’ fathers beat ‘um.’ Will you get on with it? ‘No, I mean really beats her. The kind of beating they take people to jail for in Arlington.’ She shook her head in disbelief (112)." How you can take bullying as a life lesson is that people bully other kids because of their home life. They can’t share their feelings at home because they could be abuse and no one at school knows it. Even though you want revenge towards people, you shouldn't judge people off of their actions because you never know what is truly the reason for their action. I recommend this book to middle school students because it is an easier read, but still has good life lessons.