Bridge to Terabithia Themes

Friendship is the most important kind of relationship in Bridge to Terabithia: friends are the family that you get to choose for yourself. The most evolved characters – Jess, Leslie, May Bell...

Sometimes family can be hard to relate to (pun intended). See, in his family, Jess is the odd one out – faced with his mom's figurative and dad's literal absences, and his older sisters' shal...

Courage takes many forms in Bridge to Terabithia, whether it's standing up for girls' rights to run with the boys, crossing a rushing creek in the pouring rain, getting revenge on a bully, or comfo...

Terabithia exists inside Lark Creek – it's brought to life within the bounds of the boring, the stifling, and the ordinary. What's amazing is how living and being inside Terabithia allows cha...

Innocence takes many forms in Bridge to Terabithia. Jess's mom doesn't know how to use correct grammar, and she believes her daughter when Ellie tells her that her dad promised her some money. Lesl...

Where does the power of transformation come – from the inside or the outside? In Bridge to Terabithia, it's both. Through their friendship, both Jess and Leslie are changed for the better. Je...

In Bridge to Terabithia we see the social class distinctions and the distinctions between the fifth graders (and even younger kids) and the seventh graders. Just as Jess and Leslie's parents are se...

Ultimately, ambition in Bridge to Terabithia is about being greater than yourself, or pushing past the bounds of your mind and heart. At the beginning of Bridge to Terabithia, we think ambition is...