To Read & To Write

Natalie Babbitt’s classic story, “Tuck Everlasting”, published in 1975, is a magical, powerful novella about a ten-year old girl named Winnie. She longs for something that is much more than her own bourgeois family, her own boring front yard, and her own lonesome self (whose only real friend at the beginning of the story is a frog). The day she decides to run away grants all her wishes. She spends a couple days living with an odd, mysterious, and gentle family – the Tucks - who tell her a big, unbelievable secret – a secret so important that it depends on their lives… Besides a fantastic, perfectly-crafted plot, Babbitt’s “Tuck Everlasting” has some of the most beautiful literary prose ever written. The dead heat of August, the stifling feeling of loneliness, the exuberance of love, the passing of time and its effect on the atmosphere, and, quite unique to this book – the idea of a lost rural place with lots and lots forest and sudden otherworldly and unexpected clearings, clearings ...

“Undine”, written in German by Friedrich Heinrich Karl de la Motte Fouque in 1811, is considered one of the finest stories from the fairy-tales and folklore canon. Although the author was influenced by previous stories (specifically a French tale as well as the work of a Swiss writer), “Undine” is exceptional because of the language and writing within its pages. George Macdonald, a Scottish author, has famously said: “Were I asked, what is a fairytale? I should reply, Read Undine, that is a fairytale…” The story begins with a complete and concise statement of the overall plot. What would usually be considered a “spoiler” is not so in “Undine”. And rightfully so, because the elements of the characters and setting are described so mysteriously that the story becomes completely engrossing, and the one reading it will forget all about the introduction. The story is rich with subplots as well, and thus brings the reader into many different worlds; a quaint rural cottage, an island gar...