Bridge to Terabithia By Katherine Patterson

The novel Bridge to Terabithia is a fictional novel written by Katherine Patterson in 1977. The tale is written about a young boy named Jesse Aarons, who desperately thrives to become the fastest runner at Lark Creek Elementary School to impress his father. Lark Creek Elementary is a school which is short on resources especially sport equipment. Therefore, the balls were usually in the hands of the upper grades at recess after lunch and girls claimed the top section of hopscotch and jump rope. Throughout the story, he finds himself making an unlikely relationship with Leslie Burke, a girl who specialises in storytelling.

They created a fantasy realm called ‘Terabithia’. A place where Jesse is the king and Leslie is the queen. In this novel, the significant relationships Jesse has is with his father, Maybelle and Leslie. Jesse does not have a good relationship with his father, even though they are blood related, he attempts to impress his father by becoming the fastest, not one of the fastest, or next to the fastest but the fastest. The very best! Jesse’s father does not pay attention to him as he attempts to make his father notice him. Jesse took over the job to milk Miss Bessie, the cow with big brown droopy eyes. On the day of Christmas Jesse’s father purchases him a toy train set and spent more than he was supposed to. The moment Leslie’s death occurred, Jesse’s father begins to treat him better and pays more attention towards him and comforts him to show that he sincerely cares about him as his father.

Maybelle is one of Jesse’s younger sisters and she plays an important role in Jesse’s life as she is the only one that he can trust out of all his sisters, Maybelle is six years old while Jesse is ten. Maybelle worships him from the beginning, who also feels that she doesn’t have a place in the family. On the day of Leslie’s accident, everyone falsely believed she was Jesse’s girlfriend. Maybelle was the first to learn about Terabithia after following Jesse and inherited the queen’s crown after Leslie’s accident while attempting to reach Terabithia the fantasy realm. Jesse Aarons had an unlikely friendship with Leslie Burke, a town girl. At the beginning Jesse believed that Leslie was a stupid name, they are around the same height and they are classmates. Leslie was the first person to beat Jesse in a race which caused him to have a change of heart towards her. After time, Jesse and Leslie became friends and created Terabithia, a fantasy realm where he is King and she is Queen.

For Christmas, Jesse had given Leslie a puppy which she named Prince Terrien (P.T) and received paints in return. On the day that Jesse paid a trip to the art gallery, it was when Leslie was in an accident attempting to get across to reach Terabithia. Therefore, it is clear that there are many significant relationships in Katherine Patterson’s novel Bridge to Terabithia. Mr Aarons is introduced when they did not have a good relationship at the time and when he didn’t notice how hard Jesse was attempting to impress him. Maybelle is introduced as Jesse’s younger sister who he trusts the most out of all his sisters and she inherited the Queen’s crown after Leslie’s death. Leslie was presented when they had an unlikely relationship at first, after she beat him in a race, he started to think differently about her. Lark Creek Elementary was a school they both attended.