Bridge to Terabithia

I just love going to the movies with my son. He is so animated throughout the film, and he truly reacts to every single "turning point" of the storyline. I never read this book in grade-school, but was assigned the novel in an adolescent literature course that I took in college. Truthfully, this is one film that actually was more enjoyable than the original literary work. It certainly held my son's attention, and I too was impressed by the cinematic production of this Newberry Award winning novel.

However, I wasn't entirely prepared to deal with Josh's reaction to the novel's tragic drowning death of the young girl, Leslie. Josh kept saying...rather loudly in the theatre..."she can't be dead...she's his best friend!" Uh....want to explain that one to a five year-old?
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I think the best compliment that I've ever received about my son came from his teacher last year. She told me that never in her teaching career had she met a young boy who wore his heart on his sleeve as Josh does. You know, it's true. The little guy does have an incredible knack for making sure everyone whom he knows is content, and he does genuinely get upset when people in his life are unhappy/ having a bad day. I've often wished that I had the compassion of my son...what an awesome gift that he has to share.