Tuck Everlasting
By Natalie Babbitt
Chapter 1
Draw a picture of what you think Treegap
looks like.
Chapter 2
Create a character map of Mae Tuck
Lives with her evil step
mother and step sisters.
Is unhappy working as a
Servant, but she is a good
person
Cinderella
Mice help her prepare
For the ball.
Has a fairy god mother
Meets the prince, loses her
Glass slipper
Chapter 3
What books have you enjoyed reading?
Why?
Were you able to make a connection to
the text?
Write about how relating to a book can
help you understand the book better.
Have you ever felt like Winnie does- like
running away? Describe how you felt and
how your feelings were similar to Winnie’s.
Chapter 4
Foreshadowing is another author’s craft.
An author uses foreshadowing to give
readers a hint about something that will
happen later in the story. This creates
tension in the reader’s mind and makes
the story more exciting. It also helps tie
the story together by relating early events
to later ones. (pg. 18?)
Whom or what do you think the man in the
yellow suit is searching for?
After you read Chapter 4
Imagery is language that an author uses to
illustrate with words the characters and
events in a book. Imagery can include
both descriptive language and figurative
language.
Figurative language can consist of similes
and metaphors.
Can you find an example of a simile in the
text?
Chapter 5
A stranger stops
at the Foster
gate, and he is
looking for
someone.
Winnie Foster thinks
about running away.
Winnie tells
She goes into the
her troubles
wood.
to the toad.
The
stranger
talks to
Winnie. He
is looking
The Wood
for a
Owned by
family.
He wears a yellow suit
and is “tall and narrow.”
Winnie meets
Jesse, Mae, and
Miles in the
wood.
the Fosters Ash tree
and
spring at
center
Mae Tuck sets
out to meet her
two sons, Jesse
and Miles.
Tuck family has
looked the
same for 87
years.
Mae
has a
music
box.
Chapter 6
After reading Chapter 7
What do you think about the Tuck’s story?
Back up your thinking with examples from
the book.
If you were Winnie, would you believe
them? Why or why not?
List some parts of Chapter 7 that are
fantasy, and others that are realistic.
Chapter 8-9
Character development- It is important not
only to look at what a character is like at a
particular moment in time, but also to
watch how the character changes over
time.
Have you noticed any changes in Winnie
since the beginning of the book? For what
reasons has she changed?
Chapters 8-9
Winnie is constantly
watched and
protected by her
family. She’s tired
of it and wants to
do something
interesting. She’s
determined to run
away.
Ch. 1
2
3
Winnie realizes she’s afraid to run
away, but she has enough courage to
sneak off into the wood by herself.
After being kidnapped, Winnie
feels frightened and helpless.
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Chapters 10-11
Comparing and contrasting is a
comprehension skill that you can use to
understand the story, including setting,
theme, and characters. By noticing
similarities and differences between
characters, you can understand what a
character is doing and, more importantly,
why the character is doing it.
Develop a compare-contrast chart for
Winnie and the Tucks home.
Chapters 10-11
Compare and contrast Winnie’s home and
the Tucks home.
How does Winnie feel now?
Chapters 10-11
Winnie’s home life
 Very organized
 Lots of rules
 Uncomfortable way of
life
 Limited
 In a lonely spot
Tuck’s home life
 Very little rules
 Very dirty house
 Comfortable
 Free to do almost
anything
 friendly
Chapters 12-13
One theme is the idea that life is a natural
cycle. Images of a wheel, hub, or circle
recur throughout the text.
Make inter-textual connections to other
books that you have read or movies that
you have seen that employ recurring ideas
or images.
Chapters 12-13 Story Themes
A story theme is repeated images, a major
idea, or the point of the story.
Do you notice any familiar or recurring
images in Chapters 12 and 13?
 Where in the book have you seen them
before?
How are they related to the theme of the
story?
Two recurring elements are:
(Ch. 12-13)
 WaterThe water from the spring that gave the Tucks eternal
life
Tuck uses the ever-flowing water of the pond to explain
to Winnie about the wheel of life.
 Toads/Frogs-Winnie spoke to a toad outside the fence of her own
house,
- She noticed the loud croaking of frogs at the Tucks’
pond when she was in the boat with Tuck and then with
Miles.
Chapters 14-15
Complete 2 quadrants in your notebook for
each chapter.
After reading Chapters 16-17
Literary Elements:
Beginning (Setting, Main characters and
problem are introduced)
Middle (the characters struggle to solve the
problem)
Climax- (events lead up to a climax which is the
most exciting point in the story)
End (the problem is solved/ resolved)
What is the central problem or conflict in Tuck
Everlasting?
After reading Chapters 18-19
Complete 2 quadrants for each chapter.
Use strategies that you have not used thus
far in the book.
After reading Chapters 20-21
 A story graph helps students track changes in the story
from beginning to
end.
She gets to the house and goes
over to Grandma’s bed.
Very happy
The
woodcutter
kills the wolf.
Happy
Little Red Riding
Hood leaves for
Grandma’s House.
She’s glad to
be safe, but
her
grandmother
is gone.
The wolf jumps out
and threatens to
eat her.
Not happy
Beginning
Middle
End
Story graph
Winnie’s feelings change over time
Her situation changes over time
Your feelings about the story may have
changed over time.
Now it is your turn to create a story graph
for Tuck Everlasting. You can choose
which situation or character changes.
After reading Chapters 22-23
 A theme that emerges throughout Tuck
Everlasting is the complex relationship
between being responsible and following the
law.
What are laws?
How do the people who live in a community
benefit when everyone knows and follows
the laws?
How important is your responsibility to do
what you think is right? How important is
your responsibility to obey the law?
When your own sense of right and wrong
goes against what the law says, what should
you do? Why?
Chapters 23-24 (Cont.)
Predict whether you think Winnie
will go back to the spring when
she is 17 , and why?
Why do you think she should
drink the water?
Why do you think she should not
drink the water.
After reading Chapter 24
 What is “Point of view”?
 Stories can be written in first-person or thirdperson point of view.
 If the character, or narrator, uses the words I
and me to refer to himself or herself, the story is
written in first-person.
 If the narrator is outside the story and uses
words such as he, she, him, and her to refer to
the characters in the story, the story is written in
3rd person.
 First person Point of
View-I clasped my
trembling hands
thankfully.
-One by one I kissed
them back.
 Third Person Point of
ViewWinnie clasped her
trembling hands
thankfully.
One by one she kissed
them back.
What point of view did Natalie Babbitt use
to write Tuck Everlasting?
 In some stories the third-person narrator can
describe the thoughts and feelings of only one
character. In other stories the third-person
narrator can describe the thoughts and feelings
of all of the characters.
 Why do you think that the author chose to limit
the descriptions to the thoughts and feelings of
Winnie.
 How did this affect the way readers experience
the story?
 How would the story be different if the narrator
described only Jesse’s thoughts and feelings
instead of Winnie’s?
After reading Chapter 25
Do you think the central problem or conflict
in the story has been resolved?
The man in the yellow suit is dead, Mae Tuck
has been rescued from prison, so the secret of
the spring is safe.
What questions still remain unanswered?
Turn and talk with your partner.
Epilogue
An epilogue is a short section at the end of
a book that often explains what happens
to characters after the main action of the
story is over.
What clues does the author use to reveal
when the events of the epilogue take
place?
How does the author use the gravestone
to give details about what happened to
Winnie?