Author: Katherine Paterson
Illustrator: Donna Diamond
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Grade level: 4-6
Award: Newbery Medal
Bridge to Terabithia is a very touching book about a young boy named Jess Aarons who practices all summer to become the fastest runner in fifth grade. When he goes to race, he ends up getting beaten by a new girl named Leslie Burke. They end up becoming best friends who spend all their time together in an imaginary kingdom they created named Terabithia. The book has a very sad ending when Leslie passes away after crossing the river to get to Terabithia. The beauty in this tragedy is seeing the great impact that Leslie's imagination had on Jess' life.
The illustrations are done by Donna Diamond and are mainly in black ink with white background. This style gives the book a simplistic and old time feel. There are not a whole lot of illustrations throughout the book because it is a novel.
Because this book can be so controversial, it is hard to say whether or not students should read it in school. I think this book is a great example of realistic fiction because it is so realistic. Situations that happen in this story happen in real life all of the time. Death happens and students need to be aware of that and sympathetic towards stories like this one. It deals with death, bullying, and imagination, and students the age of ten to twelve need to be aware of these situations.
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