Tuck Everlasting: An Eternal Classic
Now I read Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt book back in the 4th grade with my class. We all were given copies of this book that we read together or the teacher read to us. I remember that at first I wasn't too interested. I kinda thought it was whatever. But after a while I began to fall in love with the story of Winnie Foster and the Tucks. Even now, I am still very fond of this book and I still have the copy that I was given back in 4th grade years ago. But, let's take a look back on this book and see what holds up and what doesn't.
Summary
I will try and go over the plot as much as I can without any spoilers. But basically, this book follows 10 year old Winnie Foster. Winnie and her family seem to be well off and own a forest known throughout the book as “The wood”. Winnie hates her life since her mother, father and grandmother all boss her around constantly. So while laying in her front while talking to a toad she hatches a plan to run away from home. So eventually Winnie does run away and almost drinks from a water spring in the woods before a random dude tells her not to. They bicker for a bit before eventually we find out that this dude's name is Jesse Tuck, and his ma and brother pop up and they all kidnap Winnie (Crazy I know).
I forgot to mention earlier that there's this other dude in a yellow suit who talked to Winnie before she ran away (Winnie has no survival skills), and he asked her and her grandmother if they knew about the woods and stuff and Winnie's grandmother yaps about elves or something when she hears music.
Anyways back to the kidnapping. Winnie gets taken to a cabin in the woods where Jesse's father is. The family has no clue what to do since…ya know… they just kidnapped a kid. But eventually the family tells Winnie about the family secret which is that they can't die because they drank from that spring that Winnie was going to drink from earlier (which to me seems like a fate worse than death). So Jesse is technically 104 years old, not 17 like he said to Winnie earlier.
Okay, so this book's plot is so thick for being like 144 pages so y'all will have to check the rest out for yourselves.
What I liked
Okay I have a ton of bias towards this book considering that it's a childhood classic for me. Although I know I can't be the only one because it does seem that this book was read in a lot of other schools. But I really liked the mysterious nature of this book. So many plot twists happen and things get revealed, it's just so interesting and doesn't leave you bored. Another thing I was fond of was the writing. Listen, I am no Shakespeare, but this book's writing was 2 chef's kisses. I just love the writing the older I get. My final favorite thing was the way the book made me sympathize with the characters. I know that my summary made the Tucks seem like criminals who kidnapped a child but they really are good people at heart and only did it for her safety and the rest of the world's safety.
What I Didn't Like
Y'all, we need to address the elephant in the room. Okay so during this book Jesse and Winnie become great friends. Really great friends. So much so that at one point Jesse tells Winnie that when she turns 17 she should take a drink from the spring so they can get married and live their lives together. Okay, so this book isn't a romance book or anything but I find it so strange that we have this 104 year old 17 year old man telling a vulnerable 10 year old to practically ruin her life the moment she turns 17. Well you may think “it was okay when twilight did it,” OKAY BUT BELLA WASN'T 10 YEARS OLD WHILE EDWARD WAS 17 (I have not watched or read twilight so just know that I barely know anything about it)!!! Even when you take away the 104 year old part we still have a 10 year old and a 17 year old wanting to get married possibly once she's older. I don't know, it just kind of makes some parts of the book uncomfortable. I'm not sure if that was the meaning but that's just how I felt about it.
Adaptations
So normally at this part of the review I would give a conclusion part but Tuck Everlasting has had 3 different adaptations so I'll go over those real quick.
So the first adaptation came out in 1981 which was 6 years after the book came out in 1975. I don't really know what to say. You can watch the full movie on YouTube for free. It just looks kinda creepy and the quality is bad. I'm not sure if it was made for a TV movie or what. But it's probably the most faithful adaptation of this book.
The next adaptation came out in 2002 with a Disney movie starring Alexis Bledel as Winnie Foster. This movie is so different from the book it's crazy. So first of all Winnie's family went from just kind of protective in the book to now in the movie they are control freaks who want to send her to a boarding school. Well, that was mostly her mother's idea since for some reason they practically cut out Winnie's grandmother. Also the most important change was that Winnie went from 10 in the book to 15. I think they did this because they really wanted to market this movie as a romance story. Which they do have in the movie. I still think this movie is fine on its own, you just have to try and separate it from the book.
Last but not least is my favorite adaptation, the musical. This musical is actually pretty good. It's way more faithful to the book than the movie since now Winnie is back to being 10 (but the strange Jesse and Winnie friendship is back). They also included 2 new characters as well which I thought were great additions. They also add this whole circus side plot line where the man in the yellow suit is part of a traveling circus. It's a fun musical and has some pretty catchy songs.
Conclusion
Well after all that Yapping I probably should wrap things up. Tuck Everlasting is an enchanting story. It's a story of growing up and I love its themes and what it has to say on greed and on enjoying life while you're still here. Sure it did have its flaws but I'd still rate it an 8/10. It might be my nostalgia but who cares. I loved it
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