Bridge to Terabithia

What’s it about?

Jess and Leslie are two 10 year olds who come from very different backgrounds but become firm friends. Jess is the middle of five children from a poor family. His father is too preoccupied with money and the only one of his family he can relate to is his younger sister May Belle. He’s a loner at school and is often bullied by the other boys.

When Leslie arrives at school they find they share some things in common. Leslie is an only child who comes from a happy home but her parents are writers and often too busy for her. Every day after school they head off to a secret place which they call Terabithia, a place they have created for themselves. It contains trolls, scary animals and an evil dark master. Together they find ways to deal with the problems they both have at school and at home.

What to look out for

There’s quite a lot of school bullying in this movie which includes hitting, punching, shoving and tripping. Sometimes the victims retaliate.

Also one of the characters accidentally dies.

There are several scary scenes which would frighten young kids such as:

• Some of the scary beings that live in Terabithia attack the two children. They include huge birds, giant trolls, scary animals and other woodland creatures which the children fend off by hitting them with sticks.

Moral of the Story

The message of the story is the importance of friendship and how friends can help us deal with our problems.