Natalie Babbitt’s modern fantasy, Tuck Everlasting, follows a young girl named Winnie Foster who lived in the 1880’s in a town called Treegap. Winnie is an only child whose family is one of the wealthiest in town. Her parents will not allow her to explore anywhere other then her front yard. One morning, she hears the sound of a music box that her grandmother thinks belongs to elves. She decides to find the source of the music box but instead finds Jesse Tuck and a fountain that made his whole family immortal. Jesse, his brother Miles, his mother Mae, and his father Tuck, kidnap Winnie to ensure that she will keep their secret. However, as Winnie spends the next few days with the Tuck family, she becomes their friend and begins to enjoy their company. Once a man in yellow discovers the Tuck’s secret fountain and the kidnap of Winnie Foster, he asks the Foster family to sign over the rights to their forest that contains the immortal fountain so that they can safely return Winnie to her family. When the man in yellow attempts to take Winnie away from the Tucks and threatens to reveal their secret, Mae accidentally kills the man to prevent the secret to immortality leaking out to the world. As Mae sits in jail waiting to the hung for murder, she is rescued by Winnie, Jesse, Miles, and Tuck and the Tuck family is able to escape. However, Winnie is left with the decision to drink the fountain’s water to be with Jesse for the rest of eternity or continue living life as a mortal. At the conclusion of the novel, the reader discovers that Winnie did not drink the fountain’s water and lived a full, happy life.
In my classroom, I would use Tuck Everlasting in my modern fantasy unit. While reading the book, I would have the students identify elements of modern fantasy within the story. Also, I would have the students choose a character, write a summary of the story from that character’s point of view, and then explain whether or not they would have done anything differently in the story.
No comments:
Post a Comment