Bridge to Terabithia discussion

At the start of the book, you are introduced to a young fifth grader named, Jess Aarons. He lives in a small town called Lake Creek with his five sisters, mom, and busy dad. When home his parents struggle for money which means that there is not much time for Jess and his dad to form a bond. Although Jess’s father loves him greatly, he can not seem to find a way to be the caring, fun dad that Jess had hoped for. The way he feels about his family leaves him lonely. He still has his running and drawing to give him something to do. Especially his running that he is very fond of. He had dreams of being the fastest runner at school, but soon those dreams diminished when a new girl beat him in a race(pg 28). This new girl was named Leslie, a smart girl full of imagination. These two became good friends and spent a lot of times in the forest. One part of the forest you could only get to if you swung on a rope across the creek. Terabithia was the other name for it. As their friendship grew as did the love they had for Terabithia. This was a place to escape from bullies, school, or just the real world. On page 40 it talks about how the books they read including Narnia gave them the creativeness to form a kingdom deep in the forest. This place was the pride and joy of the two until one day after Easter when Jess chose not to go to the creek with Leslie and comes back to some of the worst news he will ever receive.
I happened to find this to be a good read for anyone who loves a good story. It was very pleasing to see how much Jess’s life was flipped around when Leslie was pushed into his life. The two became good friends loving life and forgetting about the things that made life miserable. Bridge to Terabithia has everything including the happy moments and the sad moments that I really like. It is a very relatable book in my opinion. Everyone at some point in their life had to deal with a bully. They had rough times at home whether it be divorce, money issues, or just feeling out of place with your family. We also all had that crazy imagination that allowed us to go anywhere, and be anyone we wanted to be. That same imagination is what helped shape us and help us through all the rough times just like what it did to these kids in the book. This book somewhat brought me back to when I had that imagination and what childhood felt like which I liked a lot.