by Megan Stoddard

Created on: September 22, 2010

“Bridge to Terabithia,” released in 2007 and based on the Newberry Award winning book of the same name, is a beautiful, emotional, and satisfying movie. It is so well acted that the viewer may forget that these are actors on the screen. They appear to be real people living their lives. Considering that the biggest parts are played by child actors, and that the story culminates with an emotionally demanding situation, this is a testament to talent.

Fifth grader Jesse “Jess” Aarons (Josh Hutcherson) is a kid who doesn’t fit in. He lives on a farm, bringing him snubs from the town based kids at school. He loves to draw, which, in their eyes, is for girls or sissies. He has been working hard on his running, however, aiming to become the fastest kid in school.

Jess’s home life, though not terrible, leaves plenty to be desired. His family is struggling financially. To make ends meet, his father (Robert Patrick) works in a hardware store. As the only son, Jess bears responsibility for many of the farm chores. His mother (Kate Butler) seems perpetually exhausted; his father is strict and distant. And, as Jess puts it, in one of the movie’s best lines, “I have four sisters, and I’d trade all of them for one good dog.”

The sisters’ characters are especially well acted. While Jess’s older sisters, Ellie (Emma Fenton) and Brenda (Devon Wood), are not fleshed out much, their constant bickering provides a realistic backdrop to the family scenes and rings true to anyone who grew up with siblings. May Belle (Bailee Madison), the pesky younger sister who adores Jess, has the biggest part of all the sisters and is a real scene stealer. The fourth sister, Joyce (Grace Brannigan), is a baby and rarely seen.

Into this comes Leslie Burke (AnnaSophia Robb), the only child of two writers, recently moved from the city to the farm neighboring the Aarons’. When she shows up in Jess’s class on the first day of school, it is immediately obvious that she is different from the others. She wears her hair short and dresses in a punk/tomboy style. She is creative, smart, and athletic, beyond anything the kids from this small town expect of a girl. On the first day, she beats Jess in the race he has trained for all summer.

Despite this rocky beginning, Jess and Leslie soon become best friends. Out of their friendship is born Terabithia, the magical country they invent in an elaborate game of make believe. In

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