Title: Tuck Everlasting
Author: Natalie Babbitt
ISBN: 9780374480097
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Pub. Date: 1975
Genre: Children/Supernatural/Victorian/Fantasy
Pages: P-139
Rating: 5 Kisses
Buy: Amazon
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Extras: Excerpt
Synopsis (from Goodreads.com): Imagine coming upon a fountain of youth in a forest. To live forever--isn't that everyone's ideal? For the Tuck family, eternal life is a reality, but their reaction to their fate is surprising. Award winner Natalie Babbitt (Knee-Knock Rise, The Search for Delicious) outdoes herself in this sensitive, moving adventure in which 10-year-old Winnie Foster is kidnapped, finds herself helping a murderer out of jail, and is eventually offered the ultimate gift--but doesn't know whether to accept it. Babbitt asks profound questions about the meaning of life and death, and leaves the reader with a greater appreciation for the perfect cycle of nature. Intense and powerful, exciting and poignant, Tuck Everlasting will last forever--in the reader's imagination. An ALA Notable Book. (Ages 9 to 12) --Emilie Coulter
My Reveries and Ramblings: Ooooooo this was such a cute book! Underneath the innocence and beauty of the story, there was a much heavier undertone. The story is about the Tuck family. Eighty-something years before the events of the book, they drank from a fountain in the woods. When they never grew old, or died of injury or disease, they realized it was the water. At first they were happy and went out and did whatever they wanted, but over time they realized it was more of a curse than a blessing. Everyone around them grows old and dies and then new people come into the world. The Tucks will forever be the same. The two sons of the family, Jesse and Miles, can never have families because of it. It is so sad. Winnie Foster, the 10 yr. old daughter of the owner of the woods that the Tuck family lives in, decides to runaway one day. While walking in the woods she sees Jesse drinking from a fountain at the base of a tree. After talking for a bit, Winnie is brought to the Tuck’s house. At first she doesn’t believe that they can live forever and just wants to go home, but she grows to love the family, especially Jesse, and wants to protect their secret. In town, there is a man in a yellow suit whose heard of the Tuck family and wants to find the fountain of youth by taking advantage of Winnie’s “kidnapping.”
This was such a beautiful story. Unlike most people, I had never read this book when I was younger. In fact, this was the first time I’ve ever read it. I was astounded by how much I enjoyed it. Even though Tuck Everlasting is a children’s book and for the most part written through Winnie’s 3rd person POV, it can be enjoyed by adults, maybe even on a deeper level. Winnie’s POV added an innocence to the writing. As an adult I could see past the innocence right to the seriousness of the situation. The Tuck’s want to die, or at least grow old and then die. They would do anything to be normal again. But they can’t and they force Winnie to realize that without death, there is no life.
"Everything's a wheel, turning and turning, never stopping. The frogs is part of it, and the bugs, and the fish, and the wood thush, too. And people. But never the same ones. Always coming in new, always growing and changing, and always moving on. Thats the way it's suppose to be. That's the way it is. If we didn't move it out ourself, it would stay here forever, trying to get loose, but stuck. That's what us Tucks are, Winnie. We ain't part of the wheel anymore."
"You can't have living without dying. So you can't call it living, what we got. We just are, we just be, like rocks beside the road."
I just adored this book. Babbitt wrote with an illustrative style. Her word choice and descriptions brought the woods to life. It was all so vivid in my mind-the world was so lovely and charming. In 2002, Disney made a movie of the book. Even though the film is slightly different from the book (Winnie being 15 instead of 10-makes for a good romance-and a few other smaller differences) it captures the spirit of the book, making it a fantastic film. If you’ve never read Tuck Everlasting, I recommend you do- no matter how old you are, you will love the Tuck family just like Winnie did.
Movie Trailer:
(sorry, no book trailer-but enjoy!)
(sorry, no book trailer-but enjoy!)
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