Written By: Natalie Babbitt
Winnie Foster’s family owns a stretch of woods near their home. The Tucks have a secret hidden in those woods. When Jessie Tuck catches Winnie as she stumbles to this life changing, never going back, kind of secret…he kidnaps her. The Tucks must have a chance to show her why she must never drink from the stream that flows through the woods, and she must never tell anyone else about it either.
What they don’t know, is that the man in the yellow suit already knows. And he will stop at nothing to lay claim to the stream full of water, that will keep you alive forever. In this wild adventure of life and death, many different people must answer the same question. If you had the chance to live forever, what would you choose?
Discussion/Project Ideas:
1: Write a letter to Jessie from Winnie, or to Winnie from Jessie pleading their point of view about drinking from the stream.
2. Answer the question for yourself. If you had the chance to live forever, what would you choose. Write about an incredible situation that would make you change your mind.
3. Change one event in the story and write out a scene that could follow it.
a. What if Mae Tuck had been arrested?
b. What if the wood was being sold by the Foster family? Insert this anywhere in the story and write your scene from there.
c. What if Jessie caught Winnie after she drank from the stream?
Tuck Everlasting mini-unit