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Overview

Tuck Everlasting is an American children's novel written by Natalie Babbitt and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1975. It explores the concept of immortality, which might not be as desirable as it may appear to be. It has sold over 5 million copies and has been called a classic of modern children's literature. The book is also sold with the reading connections included.

Tuck Everlasting has been adapted into two feature films, released in 1981 and 2002, and three times into unabridged audio books: by Listening Library/Random House in 1988 and narrated by Peter Thomas, by Recorded Books in 1993 and narrated by Barbara Caruso, and by Audio Bookshelf in 2001 and narrated by Melissa Hughes. It has also been adapted into a stage musical with music by Chris Miller, lyrics by Nathan Tysen, and book by Claudia Shear and Tim Federle.

Summary

Ten-year-old Winifred "Winnie" Foster is tired of her family and is thinking of running away from her home in rural Treegap. One day, while in a wooded area her family owns, she sees a boy about the age of 17 drinking from a spring. He introduces himself as Jesse Tuck and tells her not to drink the spring water. Soon after, his brother Miles and his mother Mae take her away with them. All the while, they are pursued by a man in a yellow suit, who had approached the Fosters asking questions about their land the day before.

The Tucks explain to Winnie that the spring is magical and grants eternal life to anyone who drinks its water, effects which they discovered by accident. In the process, Miles had to cope with his wife leaving him and taking their children. They have been living in seclusion outside of Treegap for years, reuniting every ten years and drinking from the spring. Winnie grows particularly fond of Jesse and his father, Angus Tuck.

Meanwhile, the man in the yellow suit has been pursuing the Tucks. Once he discovers they have taken Winifred, he steals their horse (who is also immortal) and rides it back to the Foster homestead. After he informs her family of Winnie's whereabouts, they dispatch him and the local constable to return her. However, he breaks away and rides ahead of the constable, for he has a selfish motive for finding Winnie.

When the man in the yellow suit arrives at the Tucks' farm, he informs them that he has been searching for them for years. Miles' wife and children had come to live with his family when he was a boy and he heard rumors of their secret. He then informs the angry family that he told the Fosters where Winnie was and that he has received a bounty in exchange for her safe return: the wooded area and with it the spring. He plans to gather the water from the spring and sell it to the public. When the Tucks refuse his offer to be partners in the venture, he declares he does not need their permission to sell the water and begins to take Winnie away. Mae attacks the man in the yellow suit, fatally fracturing his skull, just as the constable arrives. Mae is arrested, condemned to the gallows and scheduled for execution the next morning.

Angus, Miles, and Jesse realize that their secret will be revealed once Mae is hanged, for she will not be able to die, so they take Winnie with them and break Mae out of jail. Winnie takes her place so the Tucks can escape. Although they are reunited, there is no more reason for them to be in Treegap, as Mae is now a fugitive from justice. Before departing, Jesse gives Winnie a bottle of the special water so she might drink it when she turns 17 and follow them and marry him. She considers this, but decides not to and pours it onto a toad.

Many years later, Mae and Angus Tuck return to Treegap and find that it has changed a great deal – the wooded area is gone and so is their spring; the town has become a typical suburban metropolis. While there, they visit a cemetery where they find Winnie's grave: she went on to marry, and had died two years before in 1948. Though Angus Tuck is saddened by this, he also praises Winnie for choosing not to drink the water. They come across a toad near her grave, unaware that it is the same one that she had poured water on years before.

Author

A gifted artist and writer, Natalie Babbitt’s novels are inspired by a brilliance and imagination that is completely original. She began her career in 1966 with the publication of a picture book, The Forty-Ninth Magician, a collaboration with her husband, Samuel Fisher Babbitt. Her first novel, The Search for Delicious, established her gift for writing magical tales with a more profound meaning embedded within them. Kneeknock Rise earned her a Newbery Honor Medal, but it is Tuck Everlasting which has insured Babbitt’s place in the history of children’s literature. This modern classic, which has also been made recently into a major motion picture starring Alexis Bledel, William Hurt, and Sissy Spacek, asks an enduring and powerful question: If we could live forever, would we want to?
Babbitt has written six more novels including The Eyes of the Amaryllis and Goody Hall—each one presenting her unique vision of an enchanted world. Her latest novel, Jack Plank Tells Tales, was published in Spring 2007.
Natalie Babbitt lives in Providence, Rhode Island, and is a grandmother of three. When asked what she wants readers to remember about her books, she replied, “the questions without answers.”

Characters

Winnie Foster – The novel's protagonist, she is 10 years old when the novel begins and lives in Treegap, New Hampshire. Her Family is the oldest family in Treegap. During the story, she falls in love with Jesse Tuck.

Angus Tuck – The father of the Tuck children, he dislikes his immortality and dreams of dying and going to heaven.

Mae Tuck – The mother of the Tuck children and is married to Angus. She is happy with her lifestyle wearing old clothes and living in a messy house. She owns a music box that she carries around with her. She considers it to be "the prettiest thing she owns".

Jesse Tuck – The youngest in his family, Jesse is 104 years old but physically appears to be seventeen. By the end of the story, he has fallen in love with and wants to marry Winnie.

Miles Tuck – Appearing to be 22 years old, Miles is the older brother of Jesse and the son of Angus and Mae. He is trained as a carpenter and blacksmith. His wife divorced him because she believed that he must have sold his soul to the devil to have maintained his youthful appearance after they had been married for almost 20 years.

The Man In The Yellow Suit - Our main Antagonist of the story, he attempts to find Winnie, the Protagonist, and take her back home in exchange for the wood, in which he'll sell the Spring Water, the Tucks' cause of living forever. When he tries to retrieve Winnie, he gets hit in the back of his skull with a Shotgun (The Shotgun was used as a melee weapon, it had no bullets) and the following day he ends up dying, probably because of his head injury.

Awards and recognition

Tuck Everlasting has received awards including the Janusz Korczak Medal and the 1976 Christopher Award as best book for young people. It was named an ALA Notable Book and included on the Horn Book Magazine Fanfare List. In 2005 it was covered by Anita Silvey in The 100 Best Books for Children. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association named it one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children." It was ranked number 16 among the "Top 100 Chapter Books" of all time in a 2012 survey published by School Library Journal. The Broadway musical received a Tony Award nomination for Gregg Barnes in the category of Best Costume Design of A Musical for the 2015-2016 season.

Adaptations

The novel has twice been adapted to film, and a musical. The first was released in 1981 and distributed by One Pass Media. The second, by Disney in 2002, was directed by Jay Russell and starred Alexis Bledel as Winnie, Jonathan Jackson as Jesse, William Hurt as Angus, Sissy Spacek as Mae, and Ben Kingsley as the man in the yellow suit. It received mixed but generally favorable reviews and currently (November 2016) holds a 61% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. The New York Post praised it as 'handsomely crafted and well-acted'. It grossed a little over $19 million at the domestic box office and did not receive a wide release in foreign territories.

The novel has been adapted into a stage musical with music by Chris Miller, lyrics by Nathan Tysen, and book by Claudia Shear and Tim Federle. It was originally scheduled for a pre-Broadway run at Boston's Colonial Theatre, in June 2013, but plans were abandoned due to a lack of theatre availability in New York. It was produced at the Alliance Theatrein Atlanta, in January and February 2015, with direction and choreography by Casey Nicholaw. The musical began previews on Broadway, on March 31, 2016, at the Broadhurst Theatre, with its opening on April 26, 2016. Carolee Carmello and Andrew Keenan-Bolger played the mother and her son, with Michael Park (Angus), Terrence Mann(Man in the Yellow Suit), Fred Applegate (Constable Joe), Robert Lenzi (Miles Tuck), Michael Wartella (Hugo), and Valerie Wright (Betsy Foster). Sarah Charles Lewis played Winnie. The production closed on May 29, 2016.