Babbitt, Natalie. Tuck Everlasting.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1975,
ISBN: 0374378487.
Reader’s Annotation
When Winnie discovers the Tuck family, she learns their secret—100 year ago, they drank from a spring in the woods on her family’s property, and now they are immortal.
Plot Summary
Winnifred Foster, also known as “Winnie”, lives with her very wealthy, straitlaced family. Winnie is kept very safe behind the four-foot wrought iron fence surrounding their home on the edge on town. Winnie’s family also owns the surrounding woods, and one day, Winnie slips away from home into the woods. There she finds a stranger—a young man named Jesse Tuck—drinking from a spring at the base of a tree. Winnie learns that Jesse and his family drank from this very spring 100 years ago, and unwittingly became immortal. Jesse’s family decides that the safest thing to do is to take Winnie home with them in order to explain everything to her, and help her to understand why the spring must remain a secret. But neither Jesse nor Winnie realize that someone had been watching them—a man in a yellow suit. Because of stories he heard from his grandmother, this man has been searching for this spring, this “fountain of youth” for years. When the man sees them take Winnie away, he decides to call it a kidnapping and exploit it in order to buy the wood (and the spring) from the Foster family. At the Tuck home, Winnie comes to love them all like a real family, because they are loving and loving and relaxed. The man in the yellow suit tracks them down, and confronts the family. When Mae Tuck hears his plan, she takes a shotgun, hits him over the head, and he later dies. The sheriff sees what happens and arrests Mae. When Mae is sentenced to be hanged, the family knows that their secret will be revealed since Mae cannot die. Together with Winnie, they free Mae from the jail, and Winnie takes her place while the Tucks escape. Winnie gets in trouble for helping the Tucks, but her real question, is when will they come back to find her?
Critical Evaluation
Tuck Everlasting touches on a number of issues. One is Winnie’s relationship with the Tuck family and how different they are from her own. They are warm and affectionate, where her family is cold and stern. They are relaxed and unrestricted, where hers is strict and straight laced. The most important issue, of course, is mortality and how important it is to the balance of life. The Tucks explain to Winnie that when you are immortal, you are taken out of the cycle of life and death, and become like virtual rocks. Winnie, who is attracted to Jesse, is unsurprisingly drawn to him and to the Tuck family. The dilemma that Winnie faces is very similar to the dilemma that Bella wrestles with in Twilight.
Information about the Author
Natalie Babbitt was born in 1932 in Dayton, OH. After attending Deanna’s School for Girls, Babbit attended Francis College. Babbitt’s first book published was a collaborative effort with her husband, Samuel Fisher Babbitt. Later, their publisher encouraged Natalie to continue producing books, even after Samuel became too busy to work on the projects. Natalie Babbitt is a board member of the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance, a national not-for-profit that actively advocates for literacy, literature, and libraries.
Genre
Fantasy
Romance
Curriculum Tie-ins
None
Booktalk Ideas
How do you think the character of Winnie compares to Bella in Twilight?
Would you drink from the spring if you could?
Reading level/Interest age
Ages 10 +
Challenge Issues/Challenge Response Ideas
None
Why I included this work
This novel has a compelling premise and bears similar themes to Twilight.
- Goodreads’ Best Young Adult Books
- ALA Notable Book
- The Horn Book Magazine Fanfare List.
- Janusz Korczak Medal
- 1976 Christopher Award for Best Book for Young People.
Great Quote from the Book
"It'd be better if I could be like you, out in the open and making up my own mind."
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