Tuck Everlasting

Natalie Babbitt

Sep 2010 · Sold by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

About this ebook

The beloved children’s classic with more than more than 10 million copies sold.

From Newbery Honor and E. B. White Award–winning author Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting is a spellbinding modern-day masterpiece about immortality, friendship, and growing up that’s sure to become an all-time favorite for every generation.

Is eternal life a blessing or a curse? That is what young Winnie Foster must decide when she discovers a spring on her family’s property whose waters grant immortality. Members of the Tuck family, having drunk from the spring, tell Winnie of their experiences watching life go by and never growing older. But then Winnie must decide whether or not to keep the Tucks’ secret—and whether or not to join them on their never-ending journey.

A staple on home bookshelves and in classrooms and libraries, Tuck Everlasting is a timeless story that has captivated readers of all ages for almost half a century.

Praise for Tuck Everlasting:

“Probably the best work of our best children's novelist.” —Harper's

“Exciting and excellently written.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A fearsome and beautifully written book that can't be put down or forgotten.” —The New Yorker

Ratings and reviews

When Winnie promises a toad that she would come out of her iron fenced yard she knew she had to keep her promise. Winefred Foster lived in the first cottage of the village. Her parents were very protective. The Foster line owned the wood in the village for centuries. When she realized she has never been outside of her yard without her parents or grandmother she knew she had to accomplish it. Even if it was a risk for her parents might wake up. She woke up before anyone else and opened the gate when she saw a boy leaning against a tree in her wood. She didn't know what else to do but stare. Finally, he saw her and she sat down next to him. When he refuses to let her drink the water from her wood she becomes furious. Suddenly, a woman and a man take her into the forrest with the boy, Jesse on a horse. The Tucks take her and when they stop to rest they tell her a fantasy she doesn't believe. They tell her about a spring in her wood that makes you live forever. A stranger that saw her being taken away and followed her and when they reached their destination he took the horse and went to the Fosters. He makes a trade with the Fosters, the girl for the wood. Once the Fosters agreed he left to go to the Tucks accompanied by the constable. When the stranger went to take Winnie back they figure out he knows about the spring. When he drags her across she realizes she has developed feelings for them, she loves them. She was forced against her will. The stranger pulled her across the grass. The woman pulls out a shot gun and shoots the stranger. The constable will hang her if he dies. Will she be hung, revealing to everyone about the spring, or will bravery and courage from others set her free? The book was descriptive. The detailed words made it feel like you you were in the book. For example, “ It wandered along in curves and easy angles, swayed off and up in a pleasant tangent to the top of a small hill. Ambled down again between fringes of bee hung clover and then cut sideways across a meadow”. The main character had an amazing personality. Winnie was brave and kind. “I can help! When your mother climbs our window, I'll climb in and take her place.” It is clear to understand. It tells you everything that happens without leaving out anything. “Life. Moving, growing, changing, never the same two minutes together”. It has a mysterious setting. The setting was in the woods. In example, “But for the most part the people followed the road around the wood because that was the way it led. There was no road through the wood. And anyway, for the people, there was another reason to leave the wood to itself: it belonged to the Fosters, the owners of the touch-me-not cottage,and was therefore private property in spite of the fact that it lay outside the fence and was perfectly accessible. The characters are interesting. The tuck family is couragous, noble, and sensitive. “ It pains me to think how your ma and pa will worry , but there's just no way around it. The ending is sad. The Tucks leave her. For example: The Tucks – her darling Tucks were gone. The sentences are long. They're almost run on sentences. For example: It wandered along in curves and easy angles, and swayed off and up in a pleasant tangent to the top of a small hill, ambled down again between fringes of bee-hung clover,and then cut sideways across a meadow. Overall, I thought “Tuck Everlasting” was an amazing book for all ages. I highly recommend this for girls. An outstanding story about a spring that makes you live forever can be grasped so easily. If you want to read a book about a girl that finds true magic in an ordinary world, I highly recommend this to you. Emma

I just read a wonderfully written book, with lots of great description. It's called Tuck Everlasting. The main idea, or "message" of the story was that you should really appreciate life. It mentioned that, "Life is like a wheel." First you are born, you live a great life, and soon you die, and that happens over and over. This book is fiction. It's about the Tuck family who drank out of a spring, and became immortal. When Jesse Tuck drank out of the spring in Treegap, Jesse was seventeen. He looks seventeen and will look the same forever. But he is actually 104 years old. So, he has stayed seventeen for 87 years. Some of the Tucks hate being immortal and wish that they could die, but they can't. They have to see people dying all around them, and they themselves can't die until the end of the world. But some of the Tucks think that they should enjoy their life that will go on forever and never end, and they should be happy they're immortal, since that's the way regular, mortal human beings would feel if they became immortal. I really like how this story gave me a whole new meaning to my life, and how I feel about it. Also their is a little love between Winnie and Jesse. The author of this touching story is Natalie Babbitt in case anyone was wondering. Also I saw the movie. I have to admit, the book was way better than the movie. I thought that all the events in the movie happened way too fast, unlike the book, and in the book Natalie really took many pages describing the plot and what was happening very clearly. I would definitely recommend reading this book. If you wanted to, you could also watch the movie, but I would suggest that you read the book first, because how I mentioned that the movie's events went by in a breeze; not giving people enough time to understand the concept of the story.

tuck everlasting is about a girl named Winnie she lives by a wood were there is a spring that pours out magic water. if you drink the water you live for evmatter what you do you cant die. one day Winnie went out for a walk in the wood and she saw a boy named Jessie she saw him drinking the water and asked if she can have some Jessie told her the water was gross and dirty. but it was really because it was magic water and Jessie didnt want Winnie to know. but winnie findsg out and they must kidnap her. then there was a strange man in a yellow hat that followed Winnie and the tuck family to there house in the woods. once he saw that the family kidnapped her he went back to his house. but the thing was that the family was not holding Winnie there agents her will she actually started to like the family and they were nice to her the. boy named Jessie, the one she saw in the woods liked Winnie. two days past. then there was a knock on the door when may opened the door there was the police and they wanted to take Winnie back to her home and put the whole tuck family in prison. When the man with the yellow hat went inside to take Winnie home may pulled out a gun and threatened to shoot the man if he touched winnie. But the man would not listen to her so she shot him dont worry hid not die but they took Winnie to jail. and if you read the took you will find out what happens to everyone. i hope you read it you would really in joy it.

About the author

Artist and writer Natalie Babbitt (1932–2016) is the award-winning author of the modern classic Tuck Everlasting and many other brilliantly original books for young people. As the mother of three small children, she began her career in 1966 by illustrating The Forty-Ninth Magician, written by her husband, Samuel Babbitt. She soon tried her own hand at writing, publishing two picture books in verse. Her first novel, The Search for Delicious, was published in 1969 and established her reputation for creating magical tales with profound meaning. Kneeknock Rise earned Babbitt a Newbery Honor in 1971, and she went on to write—and often illustrate—many more picture books, story collections, and novels. She also illustrated the five volumes in the Small Poems series by Valerie Worth. In 2002, Tuck Everlasting was adapted into a major motion picture, and in 2016 a musical version premiered on Broadway. Born and raised in Ohio, Natalie Babbitt lived her adult life in the Northeast.