Bridge to Terabithia perfectly captures the beauty of childhood innocence and friendship, while also delivering a gut wrenching bitter reality about departure.

Lines I loved:

Lark Creek was the backwash of fashion. It took them a long time to accept there what everyone could see by their TV’s was OK anywhere else.

It made Jess ache inside to watch his dad grab the little ones to his shoulder, or lean down and hug them. It seemed to him that he had been thought too big for that since the day he was born.

It was the beginning of a new season in his life, and he chose deliberately to make it so.

Gary Fulcher could go to you-know-where and warm his toes.

Even a prince may be a fool.

All the way home in the sunshine Miss Edmunds told funny stories about going to college one year in Japan, where all the boys had been shorter than she, and she hadn’t known how to use the toilets.

They weren’t crying for Leslie. They were crying for themselves. Just themselves.

Jess knew; but still, but still, at the bus stop he looked up, half expecting to see her running up across the field.

He could hear the sounds of the whispers but not the words. Not that he wanted to hear the words.

It was up to him to pay back to the world in beauty and caring what Leslie had loaned him in vision and strength.

God why have I only read this now? I love it so much, every single bit of it!

Touching story that took me back to a place of imagination from my own childhood. The author took me on a journey of memory, imagination and eventual transformation while feeling a myriad of emotions. Wonderful narration by Robert Sean Leonard whose name and voice I recognized from the medical TV series, "House."

My favorite passages come from Jesse's dawning realization of Leslie's impact on his life, as he transitions through various emotions and reaches understanding and acceptance:

"She had tricked him. She had made him leave his old self behind and come into her world and then, before he was really at home in it, but too late to go back, she had left him stranded there like an astronaut wandering about on the moon."

"Leslie had taken him from the cow pasture into Terabithia and turned him into a king."

"For the first time in his life he got up every morning with something to look forward to."

"It was up to him to pay back to the world in beauty and caring what Leslie had loaned to him in vision and strength."

"Maybe some day when he was grown, he would write her a letter and tell her that Leslie Burke had thought she was a great teacher or something. Leslie wouldn't mind. Sometimes like the Barbie doll you need to give people something that's for them, not just something that makes you feel good giving it." (PG. 125)

John Newbery Medal- 1977

Let's remember this is set in the 1970s and language, attitudes, and thoughts were different if we compare them to now. I read reviews about kids getting fat shamed and ignorant gender roles, which is right, but also it was the 1970s.

I LOVED this classic so much. I can't even believe I've never read it. I used to think it was a book like "Narnia" and am so glad it was not and that it is so much more than that.

I loved Jess and Leslie's friendship and watching them become friends was so beautiful. There are moments of tenderness and hope here. The ending threw me off and I developed water in my eyes that wouldn't stop.

Beautifully written book about the need to feel love and accepted and little glimpses of family life.

I can’t remember if I saw the movie with Josh Hutcherson or AnnaSophia Robb or now but that’s how I heard about this novel. I know it’s a children’s novel but I still wanted to read it so I got the Kindle version and the Audible version.

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This book follows Jesse, who befriends the new girl at school after she beats him at a footrace. They create a new world they call Terabithia while they’re playing near the creek, which helps them cope with the issues they face both at school and at home.

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I knew this book was going to have a sad ending and I still fucking cried when I heard about what happened to Leslie. I’m not happy, dude!

I’m still sniffling as I’m writing this review because she was my favorite character. I think I resonated with Jesse more than I thought I would since I grew up in a lower income family as well.

I know all about grief since my father died in December 2015. I know it’s not the same as losing a close friend to something so sudden and tragic but my father’s death WAS sudden.

I can’t imagine losing my best friend like that at such a young age. I really feel sympathy for Jesse, as no one deserves to feel the pain I know he must at the end of the book.

I know the power of Terabithia all too well as well since I’ve created worlds like that. I’ve created entire worlds with a huge cast of characters and backgrounds and everything.

Hell, I probably still have some of it written down somewhere. I need to take a look at some point in the near future so I can publish it.

I’d definitely recommend this book if you want a good, easy read with some fantasy elements. This book reminds me a lot of the earlier Chronicles of Narnia novels.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Source: Library Checkout

[Warning: This review contains spoilers. Sorry! It's incredibly difficult to discuss this story without including them.]

'He thought later how peculiar it was that here was probably the biggest thing in his life, and he had shrugged it off as nothing.'

Jess Aarons lives in the small town of Lark Creek. He's spent his summer leading up to the fifth grade practicing on being the fastest runner in the school. With shock and amazement he's beaten in the first race by the new girl, Leslie Burke. Their friendship happens suddenly and becomes as comforting to each other as if they had been friends for years. In order to escape the normality of the world, they create an imaginary place in the woods called Terabithia.

'For the first time in his life he got up every morning with something to look forward to. Leslie was more than his friend. She was his other, more exciting self – his way to Terabithia and all the worlds beyond.'

Jess was a quiet introspective child and Leslie's introduction into his life not only gave him the courage to do what he loves (drawing, despite his fathers disapproval) but she opened his eyes to the world and changed his outlook on life completely. His world is turned upside down when he comes home after an outing only to be told that Leslie is gone. Jess refused to believe this and he simply couldn't comprehend with what he was being told. He withdrew from reality and remained convinced that all he had to do was go to Leslie's house and knock on her door and she would be there, as she always is. This was a moment of pure heartbreak. His bravery in the subsequent days and how he chooses to honor Leslie's memory was truly admirable.

As you can see, this is another read specifically done for Banned Books Week and yet another one that I fail to agree with. Bridge to Terabithia touches on grief and death and the loss of vital people in your life. Unfortunately it is to be expected that we will all have to deal with this at one point in time, some earlier than others. Considering this is a middle grade novel and is a beautifully written depiction of grief, I see no reason why a child could not read this for better understanding on eventual sadness. Katherine Paterson actually wrote this story after her son lost a childhood friend and she struggled to come up with the proper way of explaining it to him. It teaches them that it's normal to be sad when you lose someone, that it's okay to wallow in grief and mostly of the importance of honoring that persons memory.

used to be one of my favorite movies when I was young, I forgot how sad it was. The book is almost the same like the movie, nothing more or less, however I cried just like I did when I saw the movie for the first time.

Sometimes not reading the blurb can bite you in the ass. I somehow thought this was a light fantasy that they made a movie of and as it was over 40 years old and won a Newbury Award, that it would be a fun read.

Not so and lots of tissues, but extremely well done. Worth the read for sure, just surprised.

it was sad but i didn’t cry! i would really recommend this as it is a very short book and great for reading slumps or not knowing what to read

This, along with Where the Red Fern Grows, probably impacted me the most growing up. The really good books, regardless of genre or audience, make such an imprint on you that you can recall certain lines or moments with perfect clarity. This books so perfectly renders its characters, settings, and imagination of these two characters that it simply takes your breath away. As I recall, her prose is not flowery and ornate, but as plain and simple as Jess, and as life-changing as Leslie. It's the classic coming of age story, but whatever conventions it might rely on are washed away by the story she crafts around them. For anyone who knows what it's like not to fit in, and for everyone who doesn't, you need to read this book, or at the very least, make your children read it.

I enjoyed revisiting this childhood classic. I first read it at the recommendation of our local librarian when I was in 5th grade. I remember being a bit annoyed with her afterward because it made me cry. Hearing the story now 26 years later and knowing what to expect, I still got teary-eyed.

The audio version contains an interview with the author and her son, which I found quite interesting. Having first read the book at age 10, I didn't pay much attention to the dedication page. Apparently, though, Katherine Paterson wrote this book based upon the experiences of her own son who, at 8 years old, lost his childhood best friend to a tragic accident (she was struck by lightning -- how awful). Learning that Paterson wrote this story in part to help her son grieve and make sense of such a painful loss made the story all the more touching to me somehow.

While heart-breaking, Bridge to Terabithia is a lovely story that is ultimately about the power of love and friendship.