One true friend can make a huge difference in a person's life. If you find someone who shares your secrets, understands your fears and thinks you are the best, even when you have lost confidence, then you are lucky.
In the 1978 Newbery Medal winner, "Bridge to Terabithia," by Katherine Paterson, Leslie Burke drops into Jesse Aarons' world and changes him forever. She moves into town just when Jesse feels most alone. She is the first person Jesse meets who understands how it feels to be different.
What makes Jesse different? He is the only boy in a family full of girls. He is an artist in a town that undervalues talent. And he doesn't fit in with the rough-and-tumble schoolkids who laugh at others who don't conform.
Leslie is the new kid in town, and she also doesn't fit in. She calls her parents by their first names. She knows Shakespeare, reads poetry and has an incredible imagination. And, most strangely, there is no television in her home.
Jesse and Leslie create a place called Terabithia where they can relax and be themselves. They lose themselves in a world where no one criticizes them for being gifted and talented.
This month, Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media present a movie based on "Bridge to Terabithia." Read the book and see the movie to compare the way the story is told in two different forms.
Ilene Abramson is director of children's services for the Los Angeles Public Library, www.lapl.org.
