Tuck Everlasting

The first week in August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning."

If you have a chance with forever what would you do? This is probably how I will summarize Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting. A novel for those who thinks that living forever to be a good and exciting idea. It's a story about 10-year-old Winnie Foster stumbling upon the spring of life while exploring the woods. She met Jesse Tuck where she got intrigued with the unusual life he lives with his parents. The Tuck family was the only one who knows it, until Winnie came along.

Winnie got kidnapped and along the way helped a murderer out of jail. When she was offered the ultimate gift she finds that she doesn't know whether to accept or not. I really loved the part where the author makes us realize that there is a natural cycle of life and we shouldn't really interfere with this idea by escaping or avoiding the idea of death. It's a good fantasy story with interesting adventures that readers will surely like.

Sarah, Plain and Tall

Here is one book of Patricia MacLachlan that I particularly enjoyed and realy loved. I guess the awards and honors it gathered throughout the years are enough proof that it was well-loved and well-received. It is about widower Jacob Whitting, his children, Anna and Calab and their quest to fill the emptiness left by their wife and mother who just died. So Jacob posted an ad in the paper seeking for a wife and got a response from a certain Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton from Maine. After numerous correspondence with each other, Sarah decided to go to the Whitting's prairie home.

Of course there were adjustments upon Sarah's arrival. Questions were flying such as "can she really fill in their mother's shoes?" or "can Sarah get used to living in the farm away from the ocean far away from her loved ones?" It is a warm story of people that are learning to live with each other and becoming a family in the end simply because they've grown to love each other. In the author's simple language, she gave us vivid images and meaningful story.