- 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’.It was the new girl, Leslie, who invented Terabithia – a secret country in the woods beyond the dry creek bed. Here Jess is a king – strong, unafraid, unbeatable – so that when something dreadful happens – more dreadful than Jess could ever have imagined – he is able to face grief and disaster, and even save his kingdom for the future.