Bridge to Terabithia

Jess Aarons practices running in the hay field before school, dreaming of becoming the fastest runner in his grade. We meet his crowded, strained family and the particular loneliness of a boy with no one who sees him.

A new family moves into the Perkins place. Jess meets Leslie Burke, who is strange in ways he can't quite name — bookish, confident, indifferent to what anyone thinks of her.

On the first day of school, Leslie runs in the race — and beats every boy in the fifth grade. Jess, robbed of his one planned triumph, is furious, confused, and somehow drawn closer to the girl who beat him.

Jess and Leslie discover the rope swing over the creek bed in the woods. Terabithia is born: their private kingdom, accessible only by swinging over the water, governed by imagination.

Jess and Leslie confront Janice Avery, the most feared bully in school, by forging a love letter in the voice of a boy she likes. The prank works — and forces Jess to think about cruelty and consequences.

A puppy enters the story — a stray that Leslie names Prince Terrien, PT for short. The dog becomes Terabithia's mascot and an emblem of the joy that has entered Jess's life.

Jess visits Leslie's house and encounters a world entirely unlike his own: walls of books, parents who talk to him as an intellectual equal, music and warmth. He begins to understand what Leslie has that he lacks — and what he might become.

Jess is forced to go to church with his family on Easter Sunday. Leslie comes along, encounters Christianity for the first time, and is genuinely moved by it — which confuses and disturbs Jess and May Belle.

Dark winter rains settle in. Terabithia feels threatening for the first time. Jess and Leslie fight the 'enemies' of their kingdom — and Jess feels, for the first time, a formless dread about the creek.

Miss Edmonds, Jess's music teacher, invites him to the Smithsonian art galleries in Washington for the day. He goes without telling Leslie. It is the happiest day of his recent life.

Jess returns home to find his father crying. Leslie is dead. She went to Terabithia alone while Jess was at the Smithsonian. The rope broke. She drowned in the flooded creek.

Jess moves through grief's first days: the visit to the funeral home, the return to school, the anger, the numbness. His father holds him for the first time in years. Jess runs.

Spring comes. Jess builds a wooden bridge over the creek — solid, permanent, no rope swing needed. He leads May Belle across it as the new princess of Terabithia. The kingdom passes on.