Terabithia Short Summary

The book starts out focused on this eleven-year-old boy named Jess Aarons. He lives in rural Virginia not far from Washington D.C. It is a small town called Lark Creek. He wants to be the fastest kid in fifth grade. He wants this because whether we wants to admit it or not, he wants to get his dad’s attention and outshine his five sisters for once. Jess loves to paint and draw. People, including his dad and schoolmates, look down on Jess because he does what he enjoys doing, art. He feels as if he can outrun everyone he won’t have that “poor nerd” title. He practices running each morning and always dreams of how he will feel after he wins and how people will look at him. However, one day when the races started, a new girl, Leslie Burke, crosses to the boys’ side of the playground and outruns everyone. Turns out this is the same girl that moved right next door to Jess.
Leslie is very smart and very imaginative. She is the one who came up with the idea to create their fantasy land.

Jess and Leslie build a secret land close to their homes, called Terabithia. They go here to play all the time and to just get away from everyone. Although this land is completely imaginary, it helps them deal with things in the real world and somehow leaving Terabithia they feel stronger, emotionally, than what they did going in. There they plan revenge on \the school bully, the one that always steals May Belle’s, Jess’ little sister’s, twinkies. They also talk about Jess’ feelings about how Leslie was becoming closer with her father. To Jess, it made him feel insecure about himself because his father acts as if he is invisible. Leslie also tells Jess of Hamlet and Moby Dick. This inspires Jess and opens his eyes to the creative world. With his eyes to this new world, it makes his artistic talents widen. Much of the time they are in Terabithia they imagine fighting off the bad guys that enter their creative