Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into with this one. I hadn’t seen the movie and no one had ever described much of the plot. With a title like “Bridge to Terabithia” I was expecting something like a YA fantasy novel. My first hint that something was up was when people, seeing me carrying it around, started gushing about how much they always cried at the end of the book. Despite my mistaken expectations, I can see why this is considered a classic of children’s literature.

This is a nice story about a friendship between two very different kids. Jesse’s family are poor farmers struggling to make ends meet and Leslie’s are well-off authors who are trying to get closer to the land. Leslie’s a bit of a free spirit and Jesse is just trying to fit in. It’s a sweet story that ends in tragedy. It’s a good book, but a bit one-note for me. The tragic elements seem out of place to me and unnecessary because in a story about an unusual friendship, the death adds nothing. I would have rather seen more development between the two characters even if that meant the friendship fracturing under their dissimilar world views. Leslie’s death just seemed to chop the narrative off at the knees. Still, I wouldn’t argue with anyone who tells me they love it.


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