Miss Edmunds Character Analysis

The music teacher at Lark Creek Elementary. Jess is “in love” with the beautiful, smart, talented, and empathetic Miss Edmunds, a self-described “liberated woman” who wears blue jeans and keeps her hair long and wild. Miss Edmunds is the only person—other than Leslie—to compliment Jess’s artistic talent and support him in his drawing, often encouraging him to bring her each new piece of art he makes. She even takes Jess to Washington, D.C. one afternoon to visit the National Gallery—it is Jess’s first trip to an art museum, and he decides to keep the experience to himself rather than invite Leslie along. The trip ends up being a fateful one, as Leslie, left behind in Lark Creek for the day, visits Terabithia alone—and falls to her death on the way over the creek. Miss Edmunds is kind, generous, and emotional, and helps nurture the parts of Jess that even his own family tries to ignore or suppress.