Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

Tuck Everlasting the book is about a girl, Winnie Foster , who wants more freedom from her parents. She is drawn into the woods by her house when she hears Mae Tuck's music box. She meets Jesse Tuck who is drinking from the spring. Jesse will not allow Winnie to drink from the spring because this is the secret to their everlasting lives. Jesse kidnaps Winnie and takes her to meet the other Tucks. They explain to Winnie about the powers of the spring and keep her until they can make her understand how this could be dangerous if people found out about the spring. There is someone who does know about the spring though, the man in the jaunty yellow suit. He wants the woods and to reveal the Tuck's secret.

Winnie grows to love the Tucks and wants to stay with them, but the man in the yellow suit shows up and tries to take Winnie and threatens the Tucks with exposure. Mae hits him in the head with the stock of a shotgun and goes to jail. Winnie helps Mae escape jail where she is about to be hanged for killing the man in the yellow suit. The Tucks leave town, but Jesse promises to return for Winnie and tells her to drink from the stream. Winnie decides not to drink from the spring and goes on to live a full, rich life.

The movie version is true to the book. The biggest difference I believe is the development of the relationship between Winnie and Jesse. In the book you begin to get the hint of an

innocent, sweet, puppy love. In the movie it is more charged. You have their eye contact, their body language, and the swimming scene isn't how I pictured in my head. I guess that comes from reading as opposed to seeing. I also did not feel that the man in the jaunty yellow suit was as menacing looking in the movie as the picture in my head. I hated the man in the book. But, it was Ghandhi (Ben Kingsley)in the movie, and I found it difficult to hate him even though he played a great bad guy. Sissy Spacek plays Mae Tuck and I thought she should have looked more like Aunt Bea from the Andy Griffith Show then the Coal Miner's daughter. I thought Winnie should have been more innocent looking, as well. All knit picky things, I know. These are not really things that take away from the story of the movie, they just weren't how I envisioned them!

The book is great! The movie is really good! I never like the movies as well as the books no matter how much the movie is like the book!