Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

From Goodreads,

"Doomed to—or blessed with—eternal life after drinking from a magic spring, the Tuck family wanders about trying to live as inconspicuously and comfortably as they can. When ten-year-old Winnie Foster stumbles on their secret, the Tucks take her home and explain why living forever at one age is less a blessing that it might seem. Complications arise when Winnie is followed by a stranger who wants to market the spring water for a fortune."

Goodreads - Tuck Everlasting

Awards:

• Christopher Award for Books for Young People - 1976
• Lewis Carroll Shelf Award - 1978
• Phoenix Honor - 1995
• Children's Choice Book Award

A friend of mine read this book with her fourth grade class as part of a large novel study they were doing.  She had talked about it periodically and I figured I should give the book a shot.  I'm not going to lie, I started this book at like 4 in the morning during the summer.  I started reading it, and was so into the book that I stayed up until 5:45 in the morning and then quickly realized that the sun was starting to come up.  I put the book down for a few hours and resumed it as soon as possible.  I finished it later that night and loved every second of it.  I wanted a second book so badly, but unfortunately one doesn't exist that I'm aware of.

The book tells the tale of the Tuck family who have unearthed a spring on accident that allows them to live forever.  They never age and they can't die.  They meet Winifred, or Winnie, who finds out about the spring.  They end up having to take Winnie in hopes she will keep the secret of the Tucks.

This book was so intriguing to me.  The idea that you could drink from a spring and live forever is mind boggling.  The Tucks insisted that Winnie not tell their secret and that she not drink from the spring.  They didn't want her to live with the curse and inability to die because of the water from the spring.  However, Jesse Tuck was trying to convince Winnie to drink some water when she was older so that she could stay the same age as Jesse for the rest of their lives.  I think this book was so interesting to me because I feel like the idea of living forever plays in everyone's mind.  To be able to be fearless and live life because you know you can't die is just a crazy thought.  I'm absolutely terrified of dying and what it feels like.  I feel that living forever would allow me to never face that, but I would also never find out what it is like to die.  This book has a strong thread of life and death that will lead to discussions with anyone.

I think my favorite part of this book was at the end when Winnie poured spring water on the toad.  The toad was present at the beginning of the book and was mentioned a few times throughout.  She ends up pouring some spring water on the toad and allows him to live forever.  I think that Winnie did this because the toad was always free and she wasn't.  I think that she saw this as a freeing act for both her and the toad.  She knew that she would forever have obligations and people watching over her, which meant that she could never really be free.  The toad obviously got to live forever as free as ever, and I like that that was Winnie's way of living forever, without actually living forever.

I really wish that there was a second book to this novel.  I'm not sure what it would even be about, but I just felt so at peace when I was reading about the Tucks and their life.  I would even be happy with a book that followed either of the Tuck boys throughout their life.  I give this book 5 stars and I'm so glad that I read it.  I'm currently searching for the Disney version of this book, but have yet to find a copy.  I'll update this post once I watch the movie.