Comment

Community comment are the opinions of contributing users. These comment do not represent the opinions of Nelson Public Library.
FindingJane
Nov 27, 2015FindingJane rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
With its air of delicate sadness coupled with a down-home sensibility, “Tuck Everlasting” is one of those classic tales that lingers like a subtle perfume long after you finish it. Immortality is conferred without intention on an unsuspecting family of farmsteaders, people who find themselves condemned to eternal wandering when people notice that they don’t age. The Tucks are the salt-of-the-earth types, in every sense of the word. Forced to leave every town they settle in every ten years or so, they remain wholeheartedly the same. Eternity does not render them bitter, mean, cynical, cruel, sadistic or indifferent to human pain. They do not turn out like Louis, Sméagol, Voldemort or any number of ordinary beings in literature rendered vicious and inhuman by becoming immortal. They remain simply themselves, exactly who they are at the time of their transformation. While the older members of the family (Mr. and Mrs. Tuck and their eldest son Miles) are gloomy about what’s happened to them, the eternally young 17-year-old Jesse doesn’t see what’s so terrible. He is jubilant about being able to travel around the world forever, always seeing new things and having new experiences. Ms. Babbitt renders their dilemma in practical and feeling prose, as common as the Tucks themselves. Their fate is seen through the eyes of Winnie, a ten-year-old girl who stumbles upon their secret and is taken into their confidence. Her accidental discovery forms the turning point that gives the book its engine and pulls us into the Tuck’s world. This is a sublime children’s classic, one that remains so throughout the years because it presents its readers with an age-old question: If you could live forever, would you? What would you do with your eternity if you had it?