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Enchanting. Apr 16, 2001 (47 of 49 found this helpful)
My one word to describe this story: enchanting. It's the kind of story that a child would dream up laying on moon-drenched grass on a summer evening... you know, the kind that gives you shivers because it just might be real. I love this story for its simplicity--the author doesn't try to force it to be more than it is. She just lays it out in front of you and leaves you to ponder. And it's magical. You've just gotta love a book like that!
I recommend this book for older children who are ready to contemplate the issues of life and death, but who can still appreciate fantasy (It's not one of those depressing my-best-friend-died-and-it's-all-my-fault-Betsy-Byers-type books, thank goodness!). But I also highly recommend it to adults. It just might help you consider the magic of life that adults so often dismiss as childish impossibility.
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Tuck Everlasting Mar 29, 2005 (23 of 23 found this helpful)
Geared toward the middle grades, Tuck Everlasting is a modern fantasy novel that has characters that can easily be identified with, even if they can never die. The book is an easy read with a plot that keeps readers in suspense and wanting to know more. The overall theme that life is a wheel and should move on, teaches us that death is part of the journey and to not take living for granted.
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A beautiful, wonderful book Nov 3, 2002 (20 of 21 found this helpful)
So far, in my life, I have read this book twice. The first time was when I was about 9 or 10 years old, and I don't remember liking it at all. Throughout the years, TUCK EVERLASTING has never been one of the books that I think of when someone asked me what they ought to read. In fact, when I heard that the movie was coming out, I could barely remember the story.
Now that I've read it a second time, at the age of 16, I can't for the life of me understand why. In TUCK EVERLASTING Natalie Babbitt has crafted a wonderfully thought-provoking story about human mortality and what it would mean to live forever. I was floored after I finished it, floored to the point that I had to stay in bed for a while and just think.
TUCK EVERLASTING is the story of 10-year-old Winnie Foster who, while literally on the run from her stifiling and lonely family life, stumbles upon a young man sipping water from a spring at the base of a giant oak tree. The young man is Jesse Tuck, the youngest memeber of a family blessed -- or doomed -- to live forever. While Winnie stays with the Tucks for just a few days, she learns more about their secret and what it really means. Unfortunately, a mysterious man also knows of the Tucks and of their secret, and is bent using it to make a fortune.
Though I am tempted to say that this book would be good for all ages, I don't think that this is necessarily true. My own experience proves otherwise. TUCK EVERLASTING is probably best for boys and girls ages 13 and up.
Oh, and remember: Don't see the movie without reading the book!
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This is the most touching book I have ever read... Jul 11, 1999 (17 of 20 found this helpful)
This book was first read to me in fourth grade. Every day our class would urge our teacher to read just one more chapter to us. It was the first book that lifted itself off of its pages and into my childhood heart.
Last winter, over Christmas break, I was feeling a bit disconnected from myself and my child idealisms, so I decided to read Tuck Everlasting for a second time. Ten years after I read it for the first time, it was just as majestic and welcoming.
There is something about Babbitt's writing that invites you into a world unlike any I have ever known... a world of childlike fantasies, and characters that are more familiar than any reality I have or wish to experience.
I recomend this book to anyone who has lost themselves in a world of ostentatious values and fallacous relations... to anyone who, for 130 pages, would like to rediscover what it is to fantasize, discover, and dream. I welcome everyone into the world of Tuck Everlasting.
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An amazing, poignant book for all ages Sep 14, 2002 (10 of 11 found this helpful)
In my humble opinion, Tuck Everlasting is one of the greatest children novels of all time. Although it is classically categorized as a book for children, and I've acknowledged is as such, I consider it deep enough and beautiful enough for all ages to enjoy. The tough questions it touches on, like immortality, human greed and death, and the non-condescending but beautiful way it goes about them is really touching and though-provoking, especially since the people of its target age audience are probably just beginning to think about those sorts of things. Babbit's imagery is wonderful, but not too ornate and doesn't take away from the story. The story flows simple and real, and the characters have so much depth you can picture them perfectly. The whole story, and the quiet but significant ending really touched me and made me cry and I read it for the first time at the age of 16. I suggest this book for all children able to read it, as well as their parents.