‘Close your eyes and keep your mind wide open.’
Hello booklovers
My name is Alin and welcome to my channel. Today I am going to talk about Bridge to Terabithia, so find yourself a comfortable seat and let’s do this.
Who is the author?
- The book was written by Katherine Paterson, an American writer, best known for her children novels. She has won numerous awards for her literary works and two major international awards for her contribution to children’s literature, the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing and Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.
What is this book about?
- I know many people have discovered the book after watching the movie, but that’s not my case, I haven’t seen the movie yet. The book was published for the first time in 1977, while the film adaptation was done 30 years later, in 2007. By the way, I am thinking to do a video in the future to compare the book with the movie.
Bridge To Terabithia Book
Bridge to Terabithia Movie
- Bridge to Terabithia is about the friendship between a boy and a girl – the name of the boy is Jesse Aarons, he is 10 years old, and he is very passionate about running, he wants to be the fastest runner in his school, and he’s also passionate about drawing, but his father doesn’t really agree with his hobby.
- The name of the girl is Leslie Burke and she moved across the road from Jesse. He wasn’t very fond of her at the beginning but when he saw her running, he was really impressed with her abilities. She really loves writing and telling stories, and her love for writing probably developed from her parents, both being professional writers.
- As they become close friends, they start to think about creating their own small kingdom in the woods, where they can imagine and play everything they dreamed of – their kingdom will be called Terabithia, and Jesse and Leslie will be the King and the Queen
- Leslie gives Jesse all her books about Narnia to know more about how they create this magical kingdom and askes him to make a drawing to decorate their castle. And that’s how their adventure together starts, no spoilers here.
- As I said, the main theme of the book is friendship, but the book touches other aspects of life as well: bullying, bad parenting, education and bereavement
- Bridge to Terabithia is written for children and teenagers, so I would highly recommend it to them, but it can be read by adults too.
What did you like about the book?
- I really liked the characters portrayed in the book – the main characters, Jesse and Leslie, are very interesting because they come from very different backgrounds and they are able to complete each other.
- There are others characters that caught my attention, for example, Janice Avery, who personifies the bully in the book and who has a very complicated relationship with her parents,
- miss Edmunds, Jesse’s music teacher, who has a special relationship to him, she is the one that encourages him to practice his hobbies, like drawing, and takes him to Washington to see the Smithsonian and the National Gallery.
- On the other side, we have Jesse’s parents who are somewhat the traditional kind of parents, they don’t really understand him, they don’t understand his passion for drawing and his friendship with Leslie
- Another thing I liked about the book is that the writing is clear and concise, so I don’t think the young reader or an adult will encounter challenges while reading it, maybe a few words here and there.
Did I learn anything from Bridge to Terabithia?
- I think the book has a moral message about how people should treat each other, so I think I looked again at myself and how I treat people who are close to me and not so close to me.
- And I tried to remind myself that I should treat people the way I am treating myself with compassion and forgiveness.
How would I rate this book?
- I would rate this book 4/5 stars because we have a story with an unexpected ending, but sometimes I felt the story stagnates and I didn’t really know where exactly is going. But even with these small impediments, Bridge to Terabithia is a book that is worth reading.
Next week I will talk about artificial intelligence and book writing, will robots be able to write great books, will see in the next video. Till then, don’t forget to hit that like button, add a comment and subscribe to my channel to see new videos every week.
Booktube with Alin 