Linda Holmer

Thirty three years ago I was teaching fifth grade in a school that truly valued literacy and each afternoon, after lunch, I would read to my class for about 15 min. It became their favorite part of the day. As fate would have it I chose Tuck Everlasting as one of the books. We were about a week into the book when the unthinkable happened. One of my students was hit by a car and killed walking to school. Several of his classmates witnessed the tragedy. We were all overwhelmed with grief. Counselors came in but it was hard for the students to open up. It was days before we agreed as a class to go back to reading the book. As it happened we were just at the point where Tuck and Winnie were having their talk on the lake and as I read I blurted out Winnie’s comment “I don’t want to die”. There was a collective gasp, including my own, and the class fell completely silent. We all just looked at each other. After the sting wore off we had a truly open, honest and cathartic conversation. While I have always loved this book for its rich, vivid language it will always be one of my most treasured books for what it did for all of us that day.