"The first week of August hangs at the very top of the summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank which dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color. Often at night there is lightning, but it quivers all alone. There is no thunder, no relieving rain. These are strange and breathless days, the dog days, when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for after."
(from Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt. Published 1975, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
I read Tuck Everlasting every single year during the first week of August. It is a perfect book; and, for me at least, it can't be read any other time. It is a children's book, but the writing is eloquent and beautiful and the story resonates long into adulthood.
The book centers around the Tuck Family, who drank water from a magic spring and now do not age. Winnie Foster is a young girl, almost a teenager, who wanders into her family's wood and comes across Jesse Tuck drinking from the spring. What follows is a tale of kidnapping, loss, heartbreak, and a moral to always enjoy what life brings you.
List time! My favorite children's books (besides Tuck Everlasting):
1. The BFG by Roald Dahl
2. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
3. The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
4. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
5. Holes by Louis Sachar
6. The Silver Crown by Robert O'Brien
7. Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
8. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery
9. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
10. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
It may be a while before I can post again (the impending move to Georgia and all), but until next time, Happy Reading!
I read TE in 4th grade and came upon it recently -- about 25 years later -- in a used book store. I agree the first paragraph is pretty stunning, much better written than most contemporary adult fiction!
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