Bridge to Terabithia Book Review

        I can easily say that this book won’t touch everyone in the same way. I mean, that’s normally the case with books. But the aspects of this book that are meant to touch its readers, won’t be considered equally by everyone. How so – I’ll get there later on.

        The first thing about this that caught my eye is Jess and Leslie’ s imaginations. Now, simply saying “imaginations” may seem vague. But to the people who live in a world inside their heads, the word “Imagination” is like a key, a spell or simply a doorway to a place that is solely their own.

        I never had a particular place like Terabithia. I wish I did. However, I had a number of places where I went simply to be there. And these places have changed as I have grown up. From as early as I can remember, one of such places used to be the world of Transformers. And now, it is any place where I find peace – in most of the cases, I find the people closest to my heart in those places.

        What Jess and Leslie shared is too pure, too platonic for me to put into word. But it is in the book where the narrator says

“Someday, when he was good enough, he would ask her to write them (stories) in a book and let him do all the pictures.” [Page 52, Chapter: The Giant Killers]

        I think, this one sentence describes what I’m failing to.

        Until this point, the things that have touched me will surely touch you. Maybe not in the same amount, but touch they will.

        Katherine Paterson dedicated this book to her son David Lord Paterson and Lisa Hill.

        Lisa is the Leslie in David’s story.

        It is Lisa, who didn’t happen to all the people who read Bridge to Terabithia. And for those, who have a Lisa Hill in their lives, they can relate to the book in ways other can’t.

        I have a Lisa Hill in my story, and her name is Sneha.

        The thing about books is that, no matter how you can relate to it, unlike some things in real life, we tend to get closer with it gradually. As a result, a book about loss becomes your book. And reading it gives you peace. It gives me peace.

        This very copy of this book was given to me by my best friend Maesha, who shares the same story as mine. Her giving the book and the book being what it is, made this book one of the most precious possessions of my life.

        Some of my favorite quotes from the book are:

        “Momma would be mad as flies in a fruit jar if they woke her up this time of day.”

        “Jess drew the way some people drink whiskey. The peace would start at the top of his muddled brain and seep down through his tired and tensed-up body.”

        “He grabbed the end of the rope and swung out toward the other bank with a kind of wild exhilaration and landed gently on his feet, taller and stronger and wiser in that mysterious land.”

        Leslie took a deep breath. "This is not an ordinary place," she whispered. "Even the rulers of Terabithia come into it only at times of greatest sorrow of greatest joy. We must strive to keep it sacred. It would not do to disturb the spirits."

        “In his head he drew the shadowy castle with the tortured prince pacing the parapets.”

        “He could have walked through the gully. It would have been easier, but he couldn’t escape the feeling that one must enter Terabithia only by the prescribed entrance.”

        “It was a clever, lively little thing - a present Jess could be proud of.”

        “Jess tried going to Terabithia alone, but it was no good. It needed Leslie to make the magic. He was afraid he would destroy everything by trying to force the magic to come on his own when it was plain that the magic was reluctant to come for him.”

        “To be able to be Leslie's one whole friend in the world as she was his - he couldn't help being satisfied about that.”

        “The wind carried their voices away from them. It made the music seem mysterious, which filled Jess with a feeling of power over the hills rolling out behind the truck.”

        “Like a single bird across a storm-cloud sky, a tiny peace winged its way through the chaos inside his body.”

        “It was Leslie who had taken him from the cow pasture into Terabithia and turned him into a king.”

        “There's a rumor going around that the beautiful girl arriving today might be the queen they've been waiting for.”