Bridge to Terabithia is just a sweet little children's book about a boy and a girl going off on make believe adventures, right? Totally kid-friendly, right? Well, there is a reason why it won a Newberry Medal in the first place.
- Let's start with the obvious. "Your friend Leslie is dead."
- Jess being in denial of Leslie's death. It's not easy having a new best friend and then losing said friend to death, especially at such a tender age. At the funeral, Jess says this when he sees Miss Edmunds."Next time we should invite her to go, she would like that."
- Leslie's father telling Jess that she loved him and thanks him for being her friend.
- Bill mentions in Chapter 12 that he plans to cremate Leslie’s body, which means that, in Jess’ eyes, she is really gone for good.
- Also, when Jess finally breaks down about it, and his dad is comforting him, Jess says he is scared that Leslie is in hell because she isn't baptized, and then believing that he is going to hell, because he blames himself for what happened.Jess: Do you believe people go to hell, really go to hell, I mean?Mr. Aarons: You ain’t worrying about Leslie Burke?Jess: Well, May Belle said…Mr. Aarons: May Belle? May Belle ain’t God.Jess: Yeah, but how do you know what God does?Mr. Aarons: Lord, boy, don’t be a fool. God ain’t gonna send any little girls to hell.
- Before The Reveal of Leslie's death, Jess's family were worried about where he was and thought he could be dead too.
- While grieving for Leslie, Jess lashes out at his sister. He even hits May Belle for wanting to know what a corpse looks like, while in the film, Jesse just shoves her.
- The fact that Josh Hutcherson being extremely concerned about having to argue Bailee Madison, in-character on-set is worried that he might accidentally torpedo his friendship with his co-star, is heartbreaking enough. It's also bittersweet, that each time he and Madison finish filming a scene of them arguing, Hutcherson would immediately break character and express concern for her, always making sure she's not injured.
- Janice is initially shown to be a bully, but early on, Leslie got to know her and learned about Janice's homelife with an abusive father.
- The prank on her is also quite sad in hindsight. Fooling her into thinking she's got a secret admirer, and then being humiliated in front of everyone. She looks like a kicked puppy as she comes onto the bus afterward.
- Terabithia, which is advertised as the whole premise of the novel, turns out to be imaginary.
- What really makes Leslie's death hard to take - here we have a cheerful, kind and smart child. She was Jesse's first and best friend, and holds such an impact on Jess's life despite their short time together. Yet she is killed in a completely senseless accident, and Jess places the blame on himself because he didn't invite her on the museum trip and thus wasn't there to save Leslie.
- Think of Leslie's parents. They have raised Leslie her whole life, and were good people who raised Leslie to be how she is, only to lose her to death. Losing a friend like that is one thing, but losing your child...
- In the 2007 film, Gary and Scott decide to bully Jess even more ruthlessly after Leslie's death. As if the poor kid hadn't suffered enough, he had to have two little sociopaths laughing over his best friend's death! Additionally, after Jess punches Scott and Janice gives Gary a bloody nose for pushing him, the Terabithian monsters based off of them (the Squogres and Hairy Vultures) disappear.
- Ms. Myers, for most of the novel, seems like a hardnosed strict teacher. But in the last chapter, she makes it known to Jess that she lost her husband, and how hard that was, and how hard Leslie's death is on her, and therefore she understands how awful it must be for him.
- In the 2007 film, as she says that her friends and family tried to get her to forget and move on and her voice cracks "I didn't want to forget". She half laughs and half cries as she says "the things that girl came up with". She's had hundreds of students in her time, and even she was taken with Leslie and has to continue teaching her class now that she's gone.
- The 1985 TV film adaptation for PBS has her role replaced with kind music teacher Miss Edmunds, who, in a similar scene, explains to Jess how she lost her brother in a car accident.
Miss Edmunds: Leslie was a unique, special person. And she gave you, she gave all of us, some of her special-ness. And all those things that she made you feel are inside you now. - Jesse squeezing the watercolours into the river.
- At the beginning of the 2007 movie, May Belle asks Leslie if she has any Barbies and Leslie tells her that she'll give them to her. At the end, May Belle is seen playing with Barbies... quite possibly the ones Leslie had given to her.
