I was ten when I first met the characters in Natalie Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting. Winnie, the Tuck family, and one very particular frog, linger in my mind. When I go for walks, I still look down sun-dappled paths, hoping to get a glimpse of what Winnie saw when she stepped beyond the wrought-iron fence of her Victorian home.
What’s amazing now about this book about life and death and living forever is how it’s achieved a kind of immortality of its own. A 40th anniversary edition is something writers dream about (trust me, I know of what I speak), and it signifies that the book has struck deep into public consciousness and touched the heart of things.
Tuck Everlasting is one of those books that I keep extras of on hand for sharing. That’s how it came to me, too: When I was ten, the copy given to me was worn enough to fall open at the part where…
Well, that will ruin it if you haven’t read the book yet. Let me say instead that reading Tuck Everlasting for the first time, then sharing it over the years with friends and family, is an experience I treasure. It’s new every time.
Wicked author Gregory McGuire speaks to that renewal in his new introduction for the 40th Anniversary edition of Tuck Everlasting, out from Macmillan today.
The new edition also contains bonus materials—I’m very happy to add it to my collection. I might even share it with you, if you ask nicely. But you will probably want to pick up one or two of your own.
How about you? What are your Tuck Everlasting memories? When did you come across it?
Tuck Everlasting’s 40th Anniversary edition is distributed by Macmillan.
GeekMom received a promotional copy for review purposes.
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