Tuck Everlasting

This post originally published July 22, 2010.

Author: Natalie Babbit
Published: 1975
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC 
139 pages (paperback)
 
Summary: Winnie Foster is a ten year old girl living in an upper class family, and so far, every day of the summer she has been extremely bored. One day she escapes from her yard to the woods for a bit of adventure and finds a handsome young man drinking from a spring. This young man is upset that Winnie has found him there and, along with his family, takes Winnie away to their cottage to explain why she must never tell anyone about the spring in the woods. The young man’s name is Jesse, and his family are the Tucks — they have not aged a single day, for more than eighty years, ever since drinking they drank the water in the woods, and they desperately try to make Winnie see how living forever is not as wonderful as it may be. At the same time, there is a mysterious man in a yellow suit who is looking for the Tucks and their secret water in order to sell it to the masses and make large amounts of money.

My Thoughts: Technically this is a re-read, but I haven’t pulled this novel off my bookshelf in over eight years, so it might as well be a fresh read since I can barely remember anything about it. I wanted something quick to read and given that this book is just under a hundred and fifty pages, I figured it’d be a quick read. The only thing I remembered about it was that I really loved it, and now, almost a decade later, I realize I still love it. This is one of those beautiful stories that really capture your attention with not only its plot but its message as well, and a very thought provoking ending: is immortality really as wonderful as many make it seem, or should we all cherish our mortality more? It is interesting how all the characters who know about the secret water have a different opinion of immortality. Personally, I am on the side thinking immortality is not as wonderful as it sounds. I mean, eternal youth wouldn’t be bad (hahaha), but I don’t think I want to stay alive forever and ever, if everyone else around me gets to move on.

I personally felt a mixture of both happiness and sadness when reading the ending, which is quite a rare feeling when reading a book ending, at least for me. I mean that in a good way though — this novel somehow manages to have a good happy ending and a good sad ending at the same time. This is a very sweet and memorable book, and I definitely recommend reading it.

My Rating: 5/5