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In Times Past
an eBook on CD
by Carol Hurst and Rebecca Otis

Integrating US History with Literature in Grades 3-8.

Enliven your US History curriculum!

Teach US History using great kids books.

More Info

Tuck Everlasting

by Natalie Babbitt. (Farrar,1975 ISBN 0-374-37848-7) Novel. 180 pages. Grades 4+. Also available in Spanish.
This book was first reviewed by Carol Otis Hurst in Teaching K-8 Magazine.

Review

This thought-provoking, delightful book has got to be one of the all time great fantasies for children. The writing is superb. The plot engrossing and the images and themes can last in the reader's mind for a very long time. When Winnie, a rather bored and overly protected child, becomes friends with the Tuck family, her life is changed forever. The Tucks, mother and father and two sons, have inadvertently drunk from a well which freezes them in time and gives them everlasting life. They will never change, never grow old, never die. They know that the world must never be let in on their secret, for it would change life on earth for the worse. Then Mae Tuck kills a man. If they try to execute Mae for the crime, their secret immortality will come out. If they merely keep her in prison, they'll see that she doesn't age. The dilemma for Winnie, Mae and Mae's family is extreme. And then there's Winnie herself. Should she drink from the well now? when she grows up? ever?

Things to Notice and Talk About

• The symbol of the wheel in Tuck Everlasting starts with the very first sentence:
  
  • "The first week in August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning."
  Find all the wheel symbols in the book.
• Calculate the population of the world in ten years if all of us drink from the well today. In 20 years? Can you find a way to add in the additional children born of parents who don't die when they would have otherwise? What would some of the consequences be?
• Decide what Mae was guilty of. Could she have avoided the crime?
• What is good about death? Does it make us see life differently?
• How long would you like to live for?

Related Areas on Other Web Sites

• Distance Education Environments Teaching Guide:
  http://cspace.unb.ca/nbco/pigs/novel/
• Houghton Mifflin's Teacher's Guide
  http://www.eduplace.com/tview/tviews/t/tuckeverlasting.html
• The Movie's official web site:
  http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/tuck/