And it's a banned book, too

I saw a commercial for the upcoming Disney movie Bridge to Terabithia. I remembered I liked the book, that we had to read it in 4th grade, and that I cried because the ending was sad. I remembered it took place in Virginia, and mentioned DC and the Vietnam War somehow (I thought it focused on the Memorial). Beyond that, I forgot specifics. So I borrowed it from the library. It's a kid's book, so it was a short and easy read.

Turns out, it is really sad. It does take place in Virginia. It only mentions the Vietnam War once. And I cried again re-reading it.

Jess is a fifth grader in a poor rural area; he has four sisters and lives on a farm. Leslie is a girl who moves onto the neighboring property. Her parents are writers, interested in politics and music, and she calls them by their first names. And of course they're atheists. Jess and Leslie become friends, build a fort in the woods, and make up stories about defending their imaginary land of Terabithia.

The driving force of the story are the class and family differences between Jess and Leslie. Even if Jess has to help out on the farm and his family can't afford a lot, and Leslie's family reads too much and doesn't own a TV, they can escape to Terabithia away from the rest of the world.

Another subtle theme is gender construction, which is kind of subversive for a kid's book. Leslie's a tomboy who doesn't wear skirts, and Jess gets all these comments for being a boy who likes art. Even the names of the two characters are kind of androgenous.

I doubt I'll go see the movie. But I wonder if Disney will focus too much on the make-believe adventure fantasies of Terabithia (which aren't detailed in the book), or downplay the huge financial and cultural diffrences between Jess and Leslie.

I have no idea why I thought the Vietnam War Memorial was central to the plot of the book. I must be thinking of some other book I read 20 years ago.