Leslie In Bridge To Terabithia By Katherine Paterson

Bridge to Terabithia is a book written by Katherine Paterson. The book is a children’s novel written in 1977 about a boy named Jesse Aarons, who comes from a poor family, has four sisters, and therefore takes the burden of working on the farm. Jesse wants to be an artist, to the dismay of his father, and is determined to win a race that the other 5th grade boys along with the 4th grade boys, run everyday on the playground. He has been preparing for this race all summer but his new neighbor, however, Leslie Burke, is the only girl who races on the first day of 5th grade and the only one who can outrun Jesse. Leslie comes from a wealthy family and is very smart and talented according to Jesse and he starts to look up to her. Leslie is a change from Jesse’s family and even though Jesse is very rude to her at first, (because he’s been practicing all summer for the race and she shouldn’t have even been running to start with because she is a girl), and once they start becoming closer they find a rope that swings them over the river and name an imaginary kingdom Terabithia.
They are royalty; the king and queen of this imaginary land where they can escape bullies and problems they face. One bully however, steals a Twinkie from Jess’s little sister May Belle, and to get revenge, Leslie and Jesse right a fake love letter to trick and embarrass her. Later, it is revealed that this bully, Janice Avery, has severe family issues and picks on other kids to make herself feel better. Janice then receives sympathy from Jess and Leslie revealing how caring they both are and showing regret they feel for being rude to Janice in the first