Great book. It’s simple and fun. I read it in less than a day, and yet I didn’t feel like I was rushing. When Leslie moves to town and becomes Jesse’s new best friend, she introduces him to a new world, with imagination and curiosity. She helps him try new things and confront his fears…

Spoiler alert!
I was totally into it and interpreting the symbolism that Terabithia, their imagined land, represented everything Jesse feared, or prejudged, and Leslie brought that world to him and let him explore it. At first, they had to get there by swinging on a rope over a rive, and when Jesse got scared of it, I figured they would build a bridge and he’d no longer be scared to try new things. See, I had it all figured out.
Then she died! She was too brave, and fell into the river when crossing it. Terabithia was still this other world, but now it became HER world, where imagination ruled. Jesse ended up building the bridge so he could share it with his little sister.

I suppose the effect is the same, that Leslie still served to bring imagination to Jesse’s childhood world, and likely open-mindedness to his maturing self, but for some reason I find it less powerful. Marginally.