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Shannon Kehoe

Mr. Drenner

AP Literature and Composition

20 January 2011

Bridging the Gap: Children’s Literature with Literary Merit

Very rarely do scholars examine children’s literature, because very rarely is children’s literature

worthy of examination. Most often, it simply does not possess enough literary merit. In recent years

however, children’s literature has blossomed. For example: The Chronicles of the Imaginarium

Geographica series by James Owen includes allusions to King Arthur, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under

the Sea, The Chronicles of Narnia, and uses dozens of vocabulary words that the AP program advises its

students to learn. JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series is also considered children’s literature by some, and a

classic by others; Georgetown, Swarthmore, Stanford, and Yale, just to name a few. All of them offer

classes to critically examine the classic series (CNN). Similarly, the novel Bridge to Terabithia by

Katherine Patterson, though a children’s book, is truly a classic novel with great literary merit due to its

universal motif of forging strong bonds in unlikely places and its similarities to the Harry Potter series.

Patterson, through the repeated motif of forging strong bonds in unlikely places, assures

universality in Bridge to Terabithia. According to Littlefield, “universality”—the ability of a book to relate

to a myriad of people—is one of few characteristics consistently accepted as a means of determining

literary merit, a characteristic that, in turn, determines whether the work in question is a classic one or

not. The central character of Patterson’s novel, Jesse Aaron, is a poor, fifth grade farm boy from a very

large family of girls and, as he rarely gets to spend time with his father, feels like an outsider in his own

home, a contributing factor to his low self esteem. His family scrapes by on the meager earnings of their

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farm, and whatever Mr. Aaron can bring back from his work in Washington DC; at the start of the story,

Jesse “did not know people for whom money was not the problem” (location 444, Bridge). On the other

hand, Leslie Burke, the girl who becomes his best friend, is the only daughter of two very wealthy

writers. Her parents chose to move to Lark Creek in an effort to reassess “their value structure”

(location 431). At the start of the story, Leslie was, for the first time, meeting people for whom money

was the problem. As if these differences were not enough, Jesse is very secretive about his creativity

and his drawings as a result of his father’s fierce condemnation of them in the past; Mr. Aaron went so

far as to ask “What are they teaching in that damn school?” (location 171) Leslie, on the other hand, is

willing to share her imaginations with anyone willing to listen—but not many people in the “backwash”

town of Lark Creek are (location 195). It is through this final foiling of creative expression that the two

find their common ground and forge their friendship. By making the two main characters, Jesse and

Leslie, such extreme foils of each other—they aren’t even of the same gender-- their friendship becomes

all the more improbable, and makes the book all the more realistic. Kids can be cruel; friendship often

develops in one place because it cannot be found in any other.

This motif is again made apparent when Leslie and Jesse forge a bond with the school bully

Janice Avery, a very rotund and nasty seventh grader. Janice had always acted maliciously to Jesse and

Leslie, but there came the day that she acted so to first grader May Belle Aaron—Jesse’s sister. Due to a

series of exclamations, May Belle unwittingly obligated Jesse and Leslie to take revenge on Janice for

her. Fighting Janice was no good as both Leslie and Jesse would be beaten to a pulp, thus it was decided

that sheer embarrassment was the best course of action. Leslie and Jesse tricked Janice into thinking

that Willard Hughes— the most desirable boy in school—was in love with her. Suffice it to say, the plan

worked and Janice was humiliated. Surprisingly, Jesse admitted some twinges of guilt upon its

conclusion. A few months later, Leslie and Jesse walked past the girls’ bathroom and heard Janice crying

inside. Jesse remembered his feelings of guilt and convinced Leslie—who did not share his moral

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qualms—to go and comfort Janice. Janice had confided to a supposed friend that her father had beaten

her, and that friend had spread the word around school. Leslie advised Janice to act surprised, and to

ask “where they had got such a crazy story” (location 1,021). Though peer pressures prevented open

friendship between the seventh grader and her fifth-grade comforters, by the end of the day Janice,

Leslie, and Jesse were friends. Janice had hurt Jesse, and then May Belle. Jesse and Leslie, in turn, had

hurt Janice. Patterson could easily have turned this story into one of a childhood feud. Instead though,

Patterson expanded the motif of forging bonds with unlikely people by making the three become

friends, or at least allies, and adding an element of irony. It must be stated that irony is first explained in

the latter half of middle school, and not thoroughly examined until high school. This technique is not

one that belongs to mere “children’s literature”.

In more than just the examples above, Bridge to Terabithia is reminiscent of JK Rowling’s Harry

Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, another children’s story and contemporary classic; not just any book is

analyzed by schools such as Yale and Georgetown (CNN). In the beginning of Rowling’s novel, Ron

Weasley and Harry Potter (and practically everyone else in their first year at Hogwarts) despised

Hermione Granger; she was the epitome of the obnoxious know it all. In the beginning, Leslie and Jesse

(and practically everyone else at Lark Creek Elementary) despised Janice Avery; she was the epitome of

the obnoxious bully. Hermione became friends with Ron and Harry when they saved her from the

mountain troll, and they with her when she lied to protect them. Similarly, Janice Avery became friends

with Jesse and Leslie when they offered her consolation and support, and they with her when she

treated them with respect. Both of these scenarios were turning points in their respective novels. By

lying for Ron and Harry, despite her honest nature, Hermione, not the narrator, displayed her thanks,

just as Janice, by showing respect to Leslie and Jesse, displayed hers. Janice and Hermione actions

defied what their characters had been built to be up to that point in the story. Had the narrators told

the reader that Janice and Hermione were grateful, or had the girls simply said “Thanks”, such

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development would have been nonexistent. This defiance made clear a major step in character

development. This defiance paved the way for the rest of the novels; in Rowling’s case, six additional

novels. Hermione balanced the trio, and contributed further to the story by providing a third mirror

upon which to reflect character development. In Bridge to Terabithia, Janice provided the same type of

mirror, reflecting the development in maturity for both Leslie and Jesse, but in one novel, not seven.

In addition, both Jesse and Harry suffered greatly because of a mentor’s act of kindness.

Jesse went on a field trip to see “the Smithsonian or the National Gallery” with his music teacher, but he

left Leslie behind and provided the window of opportunity for the Grim Reaper to swing in; Leslie tried

to swing to Terabithia, but the rope snapped (location 1,300). She was knocked unconscious and,

because of a recent storm, drowned in the stream below. Had Jesse been there to swing with her, he

could have saved her. Upon confronting Leslie’s death, Jesse felt more grief than could be expressed in

words; Patterson revealed some of Jesse’s thoughts and feelings, but for the most part let Jesse’s actions

—angry outbursts, tears, and generally irrational behavior-- speak for themselves. Similarly,

Dumbledore put Harry in an equally miserable situation by bringing Harry to the Dursley’s home in an

effort to let him have some semblance of a normal “muggle” (non-magical) childhood, and avoid

acquiring the inflated head that inevitably accompanies the potent combination of fame, wealth, and

youth. Dumbledore’s thoughtfulness though, meant Harry growing up as a hated inhabitant of the

Dursley household. His spoiled cousin, Dudley, was a rotund, obnoxious tot, yet was never punished for

an outburst. Harry was punished for even the slightest indiscretion; no meals for a week; a night spent

locked in the kitchen cabinet. Dudley had a room to himself. So did his toys. Harry? He bunked with

the spiders. In the cupboard. Under the stairs. Both Jesse and Harry, through the best intentions of

their mentors, were subjected to the utmost unhappiness. Harry’s miserable childhood inspired him to

stand up to bullying, to prevent some of the misery that he knew too well. It was Jesse’s own grief for

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Leslie that inspired him to build a bridge to Terabithia, to spare future stream-crossers the fate that

Leslie had suffered, and to spare their survivors the guilt with which he was all too familiar.

In conclusion, Katherine Patterson’s novel Bridge to Terabithia is a work of great literary merit

and a contemporary classic. The novel displays universal themes and thoroughly details the

improbabilities that form the As, Ts, Cs, and Gs of life. The most important bonds are often formed with

the most unlikely people; a best friend is not one who opposes you, but whose personality is opposed to

your own— like the personalities of Leslie and Jesse. An enemy can remain an enemy or can, through a

few generous words, become an ally— like Janice allied with Leslie and Jesse. This latter alliance

demonstrates not only a theme of Bridge to Terabithia, but one of many parallels to JK Rowling’s

contemporary classic Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Ron Weasley and Harry Potter became

friends with Hermione Granger because she—the goody two-shoes—lied to protect them. On a more

melancholy note, both Harry Potter and Jesse Aarons suffered great pain as a result of their mentor’s

kind intentions; Jesse’s only wished to show him some art, and Harry’s only a normal life. Though the

themes in Bridge to Terabithia may seem simple, may indeed be simple, the plot in which they are

contained, and the characters who convey them, are not. A final breath will be used to say that a key

characteristic in distinguishing works of literary merit, in distinguishing classic works, is universality:

death is truly the only thing that is truly universal, and it is death, in the end, that gives life to Bridge to

Terabithia.

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Works Cited

Littlefield, Robert S. "Abstract." Education Technology Services. Web. 19 Jan. 2011.

<http://www2.edutech.nodak.edu/ndsta/littlefield1.html>.

Paterson, Katherine. Bridge to Terabithia. Harper Teen, 1987. Print.

Special, Patrick L. "Pottermania Lives on in College Classrooms - CNN." CNN Entertainment.

CNN, 25 Mar. 2008. Web. 19 Jan. 2011.

<http://articles.cnn.com/2008-03-25/entertainment/cnnu.potter_1_potter-books-harry-

potter-luna-lovegood?_s=PM:SHOWBIZ>.