Book Report 1
Natalie Babbitt wrote Tuck Everlasting in 1975, and since then it has grown into a classic piece of American literature. Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, this 137 page work of fiction depicts the adventures of a ten year old girl during the waning summer of 1880. I selected this book because it was recommended to me by my teacher.
The protagonist of the novel is Winnie Foster. As a ten year old child, Winnie has a limited grasp of the world around her. Her life up to this point has been limited by the rules implemented by her parents. Secretly, she yearns to escape the drudgery of her “boring” existence. This is something we can all understand, because we have all felt like Winnie at some point in our life. Winnie’s life is changed when she comes into contact with another major character in the book. Some would say that Mae Tuck is Winnie’s antagonist. This is accurate, because Mae kidnaps Winnie. However, as it turns out, Mae will serve as an important mentor for Winnie. It is her interaction with Mae, and the rest of the Tuck family that helps Winnie come to a deeper understanding about her life.
The action begins when Winnie runs away from her house. She quickly encounters a sparkling spring bubbling up under a tree in the forest. However, before she can drink from it, a young boy emerges to stop her. This boy, Jesse Tuck, convinces her that the water is unclean. He then takes Winnie to meet his Mother. It turns out that Winnie has stumbled upon the fountain of youth, a fountain that Mae Tuck and her family have vowed to keep a secret. To protect this secret, Mae kidnaps Winnie. Thus begins Winnie’s big adventure. It contains action, romance and intrigue, and in the end, Winnie learns an important lesson about life.
Tuck Everlasting teaches us to cherish our lives, and to never fear change. We see this developed when we witness how hard life has become for the Tuck family. After drinking from the fountain, they are doomed to walk the earth forever, immortal and unchanged. Although at first glance, this might seem appealing, it is in fact a horrible life sentence. The Tuck children will never grow to adulthood. The Tuck parents will never be able to see their children experience true love or grow wise with age. Instead, they are condemned to relive their daily existence over and over. The Tucks reinforce this when they state “You can’t have living without dying” (pg 64). The book teaches us that we should not fear the changes that come with life. Rather, we should embrace these changes, and learn from them. After all, if we fear life’s changes, we will be like the Tucks, frozen in time and unable to experience many of life’s greatest gifts.
I loved reading this book. It is an artistic blend of art and adventure. Babbitt skillfully employs symbolism to develop the “wheel of life”, and utilizes carefully crafted metaphors like “the rain fell in sheets now” to enliven the text. Additionally, she weaves a masterful story, filled with adventure and romance. I have not read any of Babbitt’s other novels, but I would definitely search them out in the future. This book is a “must read” for anyone who craves adventure, and appreciates good literature.
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13 comments:
Tea,
Exemplar #2
My mark is 8 because there is roughly about 1 1/2 paragraphs that describe this throughly. I took great pleasure because it was easy to read and fun to follow.
mary-
I think that this is a ten out of ten! It was very interesting to read, and now I would like to read this book. There were very few errors, and I think that it was a logical answer.
I would give this a 9 because it is very structured, expressive, and flows smoothly. The book gives a meaning to life and the writer of the report tells of it. However, the writer did not give a good reason to why they chose it. If the teacher recommended it, Then say they did but don't say it in that way, because it makes it seem as a forced report.
I would give this book report a 5 3/4 because it had bad spelling and horrible speliing mistakes.
on the other hand it was quite descriptive and detailed.
Hewitt:)
This was a very good report. It was structured snd very sophisticated. I could not find any errors ] in this and the vocabulary was good. It stayed on topic all the way through and ran smoothy as well. I give it a 10/10, no big whoop comsidering you have already graduated school and you are a teacher! All the same congratz!
by Shupedog
Sophia-Exemplar #2
I am going to give this report a mark from the 9....10 block. I am going to do this because it is very intriguing and it is written with varied types of sentances. It also shows just the right amount of the storyline so that we don't get bored. there is no errors that I could find. It was excellent.
Tamzin,
Exemplar #1
In my opinion, this book report deserves a mark of eight and a half. This is because although the report had interesting vocabulary and ideas, some of the ideas were not well thought out. All in all, I think that this was a fascinating book report, and I would love to read 'Tuck Everlasting'.
Natalie- I am going to give this book report 9 out of 10. I chose this mark becuase the writing was interesting to read, it flowed smoothly and there were no errors. I also chose this mark becuase the vocabulary was very expressive.
I would give this book report a 5 3/4 because it had bad spelling and horrible spelling mistakes.
on the other hand it was quite descriptive and detailed.
Hewitt:):O
Shay- This book report was obviously written with great care and effort. The writer was very thorough. I had a good idea of what the book was about. This deserves a 10/10!!!
By:Kylie
I would give this person a 9/10. I gave this person a 9 because it had no spelling errors that I could find and it had a great struture and had a lot of effort in their work.
By: Rachel
I would rate this book report 9/10 because it was very well written and has many useful vocabulary terms. I think that the book report had very few errors and it was very easy to understand. I think the authour made the book report very well structured and they also made it so it was just like the book.
I would rate this a 10. It is very detailed and intriging. It was relevent to the story and makes me want to read the book.
Trevor
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