This is what I remembered about Bridge to Terabithia prior to reopening the book -- it was about a boy and a girl who create some sort of imaginary kingdom under a tree and in the end the girl dies. I remember the death scene quite vividly because Mrs. Hanley made the brave decision to read this book out loud to my fourth grade class as we sat upon the carpeted section of our linoleum-floored classroom. I remember sitting alongside my classmates, whimpering, thinking, this is so unfair. As an adult, my position has not changed -- it isn't fair that the main girl, Leslie, died. This time, however, I'm pissed about it!
Let me back up a bit and give you some context. This is the story of Jess Aarons who lives in a poor community in rural Virginia with his four sisters and parents. (For some reason, I remembered this story taking place in the suburbs. I'm thinking I just projected my own situation onto my memories of the book.) The town Jess lives in reminded of the poor rural community in Shiloh, but instead of letting poverty bring them together in a support system, their difficult home lives made these kids really damn mean to one another. Because Jess is different from other kids his age -- instead of liking sports and TV, he loves to paint and draw -- he is a loner, and is constantly trying to stay under the radar at home and in school to avoid trouble. Jess' life changes when Leslie moves in the house down the street. Leslie is even more of an odd bird than he is -- she says strange things, has the audacity to beat all the boys in sprint races, and openly admits that her family doesn't have a TV (subjecting her to the brutal ridicule of her classmates). She is also different because she is not poor like everyone else, she is actually wealthy. She and her parents came to live in town because her parents are writers and are presumably locking themselves up in an old barn to get the creative juices flowing. At first, Jess, in his desire to lay low, does not want to be associated with Leslie, but he eventually realizes that she and he are kindred spirits (in a non-romantic way). Jess and Leslie form a tight friendship and spend their time creating an elaborate, imaginary world in the woods called Terabithia where they are the king and queen. They also have a series of misadventures at school where they get the best of the school bully, Janice Avery and then realize the bully has problems of her own, and really she's not so bad (Just like Karovsky on Glee!). Jess' life is great now -- he has a friend who really gets him, he is drawing and painting a lot, and he feels free to be who he truly is. Now isn't this a lovely story? There is conflict, there is resolution, we learned valuable lessons-- we could have ended on a happy note right here. But the story doesn't end here, unfortunately.
One very rainy day, Jess is invited on a day trip to Washington D.C. with the hippie teacher he has a crush on (just the two of them -- isn't that weird? I thought it was, but then I saw on IMDB that in the 2007 movie, the teacher is played by Zooey Deschanel, who is just incapable of playing the role of a creepster or sexual predator -- I mean, the girl is personally associated with the word "adorkable," for God sakes). Jess is so excited to go visit Smithsonian museums with Miss Edmunds, he forgets to invite Leslie. When Jess returns home from this "perfect day," he finds his family gathered anxiously in the kitchen. His terrible sister insensitively informs him: "Your girl friend's dead, and Momma thought you was too." On her way to Terabithia without Jess, poor Leslie fell into the creek and drowned.
Now, I don't mean to sound insensitive, but I just don't see the point of Leslie dying. It seems extraneous and egregious. To me, the core of the story was that these two lonely, outliar kids found each other, formed an unlikely but sweet bond, and through their bond, realized it was okay to be who they really were. This death scene just seems tacked on. AND it is playing on me emotionally, and I don't appreciate it Katherine Paterson! I also feel like if you are going to do something so drastic like kill off a main, beloved character, then I'm gonna need more than two short chapters to resolve the aftermath of this death -- especially because we are dealing with children. I don't even think the reader got a proper "you lost someone you love, but eventually you recover and keep their memory alive" lesson because the post-death scenes were so short. The only effective purpose of Leslie's death was to make me very upset. I know this is a Newbery award winning book, and I shouldn't be ragging on it like this, but honestly, the ending was terrible -- I feel like it cheapened the rest of the book. I realize I may be alone on this one, but I stand by my position.
Two more things. One, even though I was distraught emotionally, I couldn't help but think of Tina Fey's sage advice after Jess was pretty much punished by Leslie's death for having his perfect day with flower child Miss Edmunds -- "Never go to a second location with a hippie." Bad things happen.
Second, it turned out, on this second read, the death plot twist was not the most shocking part of the book. What I found to be most shocking was the following scene: Jess is in his bedroom with his little sister, May Belle, a sweet little girl who, other than Leslie, is Jess' only ally. One morning, she is parading around in only her underwear (because she's like 5, and that okay), chatting with her brother. She says to him:"I'm gonna tell Momma . . . how you just stand there staring at me when I ain't got my clothes on." WTF????? It gets worse. This is what Jess thinks and then says : Lord. She thought he was enjoying it. "Yeah, well," he said, "Pretty girl like you. Can't hardly help myself." AAAHHHH!! Incest/pedophilia jokes between siblings are just NOT okay! Why, why, why Katherine Paterson did you have to include this creepy joke scene here?!?! And I didn't even have enough time to emotionally recover from this scene before we find out Leslie drowned later in the same chapter! Just thinking about this makes me feel weird. Ick.
So in summation, I liked 90% of Bridge to Terabithia just fine. I am still mad at Katherine Paterson for killing off Leslie. BUT maybe the reason why we all remember this book is because of the death scene. Without it, I don't know if this book would have stood out in my memory. So maybe that makes poor Leslie's ultimate sacrifice worth it? I don't think so. I don't want to think so. Do you?
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