Bridge to Terabithia: A Story About Friendship, Imagination, and Loss

The classic Newbery Medalwinning title by beloved author Katherine Paterson, with brand-new bonus materials including an author's note by Katherine herself and a foreword by New York Times bestselling author Kate DiCamillo. 

Jess Aarons has been practicing all summer so he can be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. And he almost is, until the new girl in school, Leslie Burke, outpaces him. The two become fast friends and spend most days in the woods behind Leslie’s house, where they invent an enchanted land called Terabithia. One morning, Leslie goes to Terabithia without Jess and a tragedy occurs. It will take the love of his family and the strength that Leslie has given him for Jess to be able to deal with his grief.

Bridge to Terabithia was also named an ALA Notable Children’s Book and has become a touchstone of children’s literature, as have many of Katherine Paterson’s other novels, including The Great Gilly Hopkins and Jacob Have I Loved.

BUY THE BOOK

Published Jun 17, 1987

192 pages

Average rating: 7.94

190 RATINGS

|

Community Reviews

hershyv
Apr 13, 2026
10/10 stars
Reread Bridge to Terabithia will always have my heart. It’s the book that got me into reading ‘books that I love despite them making me cry’ genre, and the one that taught me what empathy feels like, the comforting kind, and also the kind that hurts a little and still matters. It made me understand why that discomfort is important, rather than something to avoid. Coming back to it now, it still hits just as hard. It’s a book packed with emotional depth, especially in how it handles friendship, imagination, and loss. It’ll always be one of my favorites.
Jasmeet
Jan 26, 2025
8/10 stars
Like being able to breathe freely when one's calling calls it, gliding into a Terabithia is supposed to be everyone's prerogative.
It is the bridges that must be willed into shaping access, entitlement, and expressiveness.

Jesse and Leslie are like those characters who have never not met; their rendezvous are reassuring for the earnest reader beyond requisites or expectations.

Here's to a tiny hidden branch, a modest creek of a stream, an unassuming arch over which to instate even a mere pedestal, for that is reasonably enough.
Shahna
Jul 18, 2024
6/10 stars
I picked up this book at a thrift store, it stuck out to me because I had recently seen the film. I love Josh Hutcherson.

Anyway, the book was a little hard for me to get through. It's a good story. But it was just the style of writing, I wasn't used to it.

The movie is much sadder then the book, not that book wasn't sad. It was. It was just sadder seeing the little girls death on screen. It had a much bigger impact.

It's a good story. Probably a little harder for children to get through, but as a teen or adult this would be a good book to read.
LMahoney
Jan 26, 2024
10/10 stars
I loved this book as a kid and love it more now. Simply beautiful. And so heartbreaking.
Recall
Jan 23, 2024
9/10 stars
This broke my heart as a child

See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.