Then, unexpectedly, Jess finds himself sticking up for Leslie, for the girl who breaks rules and wins races. But his victory was stolen by a newcomer, by a girl, one who didn’t even know enough to stay on the girls’ side of the playground. The synopsis from the publisher reads, “All summer, Jess pushed himself to be the fastest boy in the fifth grade, and when the year’s first school-yard race was run, he was going to win. Our former National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature appears yet again on this list, and her Terabithia (which did not crack the Top Ten last time around) sits proudly here. We need practice with loss, rehearsal for grieving, just as we need preparation for decision making.” – Katherine Paterson. “The time a child needs a book about life’s dark passages is before he or she has had to experience them. I never knew before Bridge to Terabithia that a story could make you care so much about people who don’t actually exist. I still remember that punch-in-the-stomach shock and trying-not-to-cry throat ache I felt when she read the ending. I was so upset that I refused to re-read the book for years. This was the first time I read a book that reflected real life, where death is sudden, pointless, and gut-wrenching. I had read many other books where characters died, but it was always for a “good” or “glorious” reason. #10 Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (1977)
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