Bridge to Terabithia

"Watcha doing Jess?" May Belle had followed him down again as he had guessed she might.
"It's a secret, May Belle."
... "I swear on the Bible I won't tell nobody. Not Billy Jean, not Joyce Ann, not Momma--" She was jerking her head back and forth in solemn emphasis.
"Oh, I don't know about Joyce Ann. You might want to tell Joyce Ann sometime."
"Tell Joyce Ann something that's a secret between you and me?" The idea seemed to horrify her.
"Yeah, I was just thinking about it... She wouldn't likely be a queen first off. You'd have to train her and stuff."
"Queen? Who gets to be queen?"
"I'll explain it when I finish, OK?"
And when he finished, he put flowers in her hair and led her across the bridge -- the great bridge into Terabithia -- which might look to someone with no magic in him like a few planks across a nearly dry gully.
"Shh," he said. "Look... Can't you see 'um?" he whispered. "All the Terabithians standing on tiptoe to see you."
"Me?"
"Shh, yes. There's a rumor going around that the beautiful girl arriving today might be the queen they've been waiting for."

I loved this ending passage from the last chapter of Katherine Paterson's "Bridge to Terabithia". This book almost made me cry, and I probably would have if I hadn't known beforehand how it ended. But it's a beautifully upsetting story of transformation. I mean, you have this girl, Leslie, who comes from out of the blew and totally changes Jess' life. Before her, Jess' family was completely detached from each other and he didn't want anything to do with any of them, especially his sisters. However, his sweet relationship with Leslie changes all that, and reveals to him the importance of having such close friends. This closing is the first time he has ever considered allowing Joyce Ann (his youngest sister) to have anything to do with him. His final statement is so sweet (opposite of what he's said in the past about his sister) that it makes the rest of the somewhat-depressing book worth it. Even though it is a sad story, Paterson tells it in such a way, and ends it so well, that I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who has some "magic" in them.