*THIS COMMENT DEFINITELY CONTAINS SPOILERS*
I read the book by Katherine Patterson way back in grade school. I remembered nothing about it but that the little girl died. It's a charming little story about imagination and friendship, and for kids it's mostly excellent just because it's so easy to recognize one's own life. But, yeah, it's memorable because it was the first book I ever read where one of the main characters died unexpectedly. And even if it's sad for kids, it's important to know about death. The film itself is decent, if unremarkable (in all honesty, the book is probably not as good as it seemed when I was 10). It has fantasy elements, but they are so (thankfully) sparse that they feel like they were invented just to put them in the commercials. They aren't (very) annoying when they're there. I'll bet that, for the same reasons that I remember it, it will become a beloved classic among the current crop of kids.
I read the book by Katherine Patterson way back in grade school. I remembered nothing about it but that the little girl died. It's a charming little story about imagination and friendship, and for kids it's mostly excellent just because it's so easy to recognize one's own life. But, yeah, it's memorable because it was the first book I ever read where one of the main characters died unexpectedly. And even if it's sad for kids, it's important to know about death. The film itself is decent, if unremarkable (in all honesty, the book is probably not as good as it seemed when I was 10). It has fantasy elements, but they are so (thankfully) sparse that they feel like they were invented just to put them in the commercials. They aren't (very) annoying when they're there. I'll bet that, for the same reasons that I remember it, it will become a beloved classic among the current crop of kids.