Book

Bridge to Terabithia

The 40th anniversary edition of the classic Newbery Medal-winning 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 a

(19 total)

Characters

Katherine Paterson (19)Leslie Burke (3)

“Sometimes it seemed to him that his life was delicate as a dandelion. One little puff from any direction, and it was blown to bits.”

— Katherine Paterson, amazon.com

Tagged: Life

“It’s like the smarter you are, the more things can scare you.”

— Katherine Paterson, amazon.com

Tagged: Growing Up

“It was not that she expected anything expensive; it was that he needed to give her something as much as he needed to eat when he was hungry.”

— Katherine Paterson, amazon.com

Tagged: Friendship, admiration

“You never know ahead of time what something’s really going to be like.”

— Katherine Paterson, Leslie Burke, amazon.com

Tagged: Thinking Ahead, Anticipation

“It was Leslie who had taken him from the cow pasture into Terabithia and turned him into a king. He had thought that was it. Wasn't king the best you could be? Now it occurred to him that perhaps Terabithia was like a castle where you came to be knighted. After you stayed for a while and grew strong…”

— Katherine Paterson, amazon.com

Tagged: Death, Terrors, Moving On, Vision, strength

“He screamed something without words and flung the papers and paints into the dirty brown water… He watched them all disappear. Gradually his breath quieted, and his heart slowed from its wild pace. The ground was still muddy from the rains, but he sat down anyway. There was nowhere to go. Nowhere. E…”

— Katherine Paterson, amazon.com

Tagged: Death, Stuck, trapped

“He believed her because here in the shadowy light of the stronghold everything seemed possible. Between the two of them they owned the world and no enemy, Gary Fulcher, Wanda Kay Moore, Janice Avery, Jess's own fears and insufficiencies, nor any of the foes whom Leslie imagined attacking Terabithia,…”

— Katherine Paterson, amazon.com

Tagged: Imagination, Magic, New World, Defeat

“Jess drew the way some people drank whiskey. The peace would start at the top of his muddled brain and seep down through his tired and tensed-up body. Lord, he loved to draw. Animals, mostly. Not regular animals like Miss Bessie and the chickens, but crazy animals with problems—for some reason he li…”

— Katherine Paterson, amazon.com

Tagged: Magic, Art, Artist, Fix

“Jess tried going to Terabithia alone, but it was no good. It needed Leslie to make the magic.”

— Katherine Paterson, amazon.com

Tagged: Magic

“Jess wouldn’t argue that, but he saw her as a beautiful wild creature who had been caught for a moment in that dirty old cage of a schoolhouse, perhaps by mistake.”

— Katherine Paterson, amazon.com

Tagged: creature, Wild, beauty, mistake

“Just close your eyes and keep your mind wide open.”

— Katherine Paterson, amazon.com

Tagged: Mind, open mind, Imagination

“When she mentioned lunch, he realized with horror that he would need money, and he didn’t know how to tell her that he hadn’t brought any—didn’t have any to bring, for that matter. But before he had time to figure anything out, she said, ‘Now I’m not going to have any argument about whose paying. I’…”

— Katherine Paterson, amazon.com

Tagged: Lunch, Money, humor, Friendship

“Leslie was one of those people who sat quietly at her desk, never whispering or daydreaming or chewing gum, doing beautiful schoolwork, and yet her brain was so full of mischief that if the teacher could have once seen through that mask of perfection, she would have thrown her out in horror.”

— Katherine Paterson, amazon.com

Tagged: Mischief

“'We need a place,' she said, 'just for us. It would be so secret that we would never tell anyone in the whole world about it.' She lowered her voice almost to a whisper. 'It might be a whole secret country,' she continued, 'and you and I would be the rulers of it.'”

— Katherine Paterson, Leslie Burke, amazon.com

Tagged: Secret, New World, Rulers

“It wasn't so much that he minded telling Leslie that he was afraid to go; it was that he minded being afraid. It was as though he had been made with a great piece missing - one of May Belle's puzzles with this huge gap where somebody's eye should have been. Lord, it would be better to be born withou…”

— Katherine Paterson, amazon.com

Tagged: Afraid, Pieces Missing, Life, No Guts

“She had tricked him. She had made him leave his old self behind and come into her world, and then before he was really at home in it but too late to go back, she had left him stranded there—like an astronaut wandering about on the moon. Alone.”

— Katherine Paterson, amazon.com

Tagged: Old Self, Left Behind, Alone

“It was up to him to pay back to the world in beauty and caring what Leslie had loaned him in vision and strength.”

— Katherine Paterson, amazon.com

Tagged: strength, Vision, beauty, caring

“It's like the smarter you are, the more things can scare you.”

— Katherine Paterson, amazon.com

Tagged: Growing Up, Smart, scary

“You have to believe it and you hate it. I don't have to and I think it's beautiful.”

— Katherine Paterson, Leslie Burke, amazon.com

Tagged: Belief, beauty