“The Bridge to Terabithia” (or to Teravithia, from another translation) is a tale of local growing up, of dreams and fantasies, of a pleasant childhood and an already slight kink to adulthood, an excellent representative of contemporary literature. This book is funny and melancholy, sad and kind, life-affirming, sincere and friendly. The author, which is an American writer Catherine Paterson, does not take children for the feeble-minded, but rather speaks to them trustingly and honestly, as with equals. That is the difference between a good children’s book from the mediocre – in a good book, the author does not think her readers are idiots. Yes, yes, children can be stupid, cruel and generally obnoxious, but, wait a minute, it’s the same with adults, they’re often far from a gift, too. This does not make a notional Hemingway or Fitzgerald to focus on the lower stratum: to chew up every sentence, to explain the meaning of words on the fingers, and then cut out of the text all the borderline episodes that could “affect the immature psyche. That’s just silly.

Do you like fairy tales as much as I don’t, those cheesy stories about things that don’t happen: unreal heroes, unreal places, and magical stuff? In my opinion, it’s all unnecessary (or at least not necessary) for coming-of-age literature, because if you can’t tell about something without a spell and a mysterious kingdom, then maybe you shouldn’t tell about it at all. But with that mindset, why write about a children’s book that already implies a magical land in the very title, and that’s not even to mention the synopsis? The answer is simple: you don’t have to believe everything you see.

What makes Bridge to Terabithia different from other books about magical lands, and why you shouldn’t believe the title. It’s simple: Terabithia_is_not_real. It’s just part of children’s play, a figment of imagination, a fantasy. Children make it up themselves, and, imagine, they clearly understand that it’s about imagination, of course, not about magic and wands. This is very important. The game is not a backdrop to events, it is simply one of them, part of real life. It’s designed to contrast with reality, but it doesn’t contradict it, as again in many children’s books. So what’s good about that? Yes, that we are not taught from childhood to run away from reality, but that it is possible to fight it, to change it without going away defeated. It would not be superfluous to remind ourselves of that even at a much older age.

I don’t want to say too much about the plot. It is good just enough not to pull the blanket, not to bore the reader, but also to keep his interest in the text throughout the story, which, by the way, not much. A good heartfelt story told in only a couple hundred pages… Reading a book like this, even adults, already quite sophisticated, will definitely want to find somewhere deep inside their childish alter ego, which will allow them to fully enjoy this excellent piece of literature. One is drawn to compare it to other heavy multi-volume books under a thousand pages, in some places steeped in self-copying or pampering. But about the one whose name shall not be mentioned, which occupies the first, second, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth place on the List of Top 10 books of all time (just imagine), some other time. By the way, Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia wasn’t even in the Top 100 there because of the low number of readers.

Finally, a few words for those who have seen the 2007 movie of the same name and wonder if they should read the book. It’s also very simple: if you didn’t like the movie (and it happens) – don’t read it, if you liked it – don’t pass it up in any case. The movie very accurately follows the book, even complements it in some places, but the book hid all sorts of interesting details that were not included in the film. In addition, Paterson’s writing style more fully captures the characters: both the secondary characters and the main characters. And they are wonderful, I’m sure that many people would have liked to have such friends when they were children.