My "Terabithia" is a land called Anesmania. Anesmania is sort of like Terabithia but it???s different in many ways. My friend, Julia, and I made Anesmania because we both saw Bridge to Terabithia and it moved us so much we wanted to have our own secret country too! We went into my backyard and started swinging on the circular swing behind my basketball hoop. We started swinging back and forth, going from our land to Anesmania. We made a kingdom out of a wooden storage area we use to store our firewood, a "two-some tree", and a piece of fence we never used. This was going to be our castle. We saw a blue exercise ball bounce out of our garage. "That will be our prince!" Julia cried. "His name will be Prince Maller!" I exclaimed.

Julia and I liked the way "Terabithia" rolled over our tongues and we wanted our land's name to have the same effect. We thought and thought until a name popped into my head. "Anesmania," I said. "What?" Julia asked. "That's the new name of our kingdom," I said, "Anesmania." We both agreed that was the right name. I picked up Prince Maller and bounced him around our yard until I came to a little purple flower growing in the middle of our yard. I picked it and then held it up in the air. "This is our sign for justice and freedom!" I cried. I tied the flower to a branch on the tree in our kingdom. Julia found a Barbie doll and said this was Princess Anedrea. I found a brick and said that it was our king, King Richard. Julia and I giggled and named other Anesmanians and gave each other Anesmanian names. My name was ???Queen Mandelina??? and Julia's was ???Queen Lafonda.???

I had a yellow wagon that was sitting in our yard. "This will be our golden carriage!" We pulled each other around in it until we came to my black gate at the end of the driveway. "Don't ever touch this," I warned Julia. "Or else the Dark Lord will take control over you!" We decided that the Dark Lord's home was our garage and that he lurks in the shadows of Anesmania. We played until it was almost dark and then we swung across the yard and then landed on my driveway. We ran back into the house but then stopped. "What?" Julia asked. I wanted to try what Leslie Burke had done in "Bridge to Terabithia".

I stood on the tiny hill in my backyard and raised my fist in the air. "All Anesmanians!" I cried, "Can you hear me?" Nothing moved. Julia raised her fists in the air. "Can you hear me?" she cried. Nothing moved. We both raised our fists in the air and screamed, "Citizens of Anesmania, can you hear us?!" Trees blew in every direction, Prince Maller rolled around our yard, and the shadows of the Dark Lord disappeared. We both smiled and ran inside singing in the Anesmanian language. What's that language? Well, that's our secret.