3. Tuck Everlasting

Title: Tuck Everlasting
Author: Natalie Babbitt
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Copyright Date: January 1975
Number of Pages: 139
Reading Level: 10+
Genre: Fantasy

Summary
Winnie Foster is overprotected and wants to have an adventure. The beginning of that adventure came in a yellow suit. The evening that Winnie is out in her yard a man in a yellow suit comes calling to her house wondering if she knows of a family. She says she doesn’t and her grandmother wishes her to come back in. They all hear a music box playing in the forest. Mae Tuck and her family are a special sort. They meet every ten years at the spring that changed their lives. They happened to be going to their normal meeting and Mae has a music box. Winnie decides the next morning to just go for a walk into the woods her family owns when she meets a boy named Jesse he tries to stop her from drinking water from a spring that he had just taken a drink from. He, his mother and brother have to explain to Winnie that if she drank from that spring she would stay the same age forever. The Tucks decide to take her to their home so that father Tuck can explain why the subject was so important to keep secret. While going through the town on the way to the Tuck’s home Winnie sees the man in the yellow suit once more. Winnie enjoys her time with the Tucks and Jesse says that when she turns seventeen she should drink from the spring and find him so they can run off together and have a wonderful time. Them man in the yellow suit, meanwhile, is bribing Winnie’s family into selling the wood that they own to him because he overheard the whole story about the stream. He says that he knows where their daughter is and that he’ll bring her back in exchange. He goes with the sheriff to bring Winnie back and Mae clubs the man in the yellow suit with the butt of a gun. The sheriff sees the whole thing and takes Winnie and Mae back into town where he returns Winnie to her family and puts Mae in Jail. Winnie helps to break Mae out by taking her place during a thunderstorm and when the day came the sheriff found Winnie instead. Time flashes forward and Tuck and Mae visit the town of Treegap once more to find the spring gone and Winnie’s tombstone saying that she died of an old age.

Recommendation
I think every child wants to runaway at some point because it sounds exciting. I think that this book is enchanting and would be a fun adventure for any kid who maybe rather than actually running away can escape through a book. I believe its appropriate for both girls and boys.

Problems/Conflict
A potential problem for a reader, or a parent of a reader would be the slight message that it’s okay to run away, and to trust stranger. Winnie knew that they were good, even though it scared her that they were taking her away but she still didn’t shout out or anything when she could have.

My Reaction
I first read this book when I was about 10 years old. The book was a gift from my fourth grade teacher for Christmas. I think it has a good message that there are those that would wish for eternal youth/life but don’t realize the consequences of such a “blessing.” It shows that even the greatest miracle can have its fine print.