Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
“Why’d you have to wake me up. I was having that dream again, the good one where we’re all in heaven and never heard of Treegap.”
The graphic novel adaptation of Natalie Babbitt’s ‘Tuck Everlasting’ begins with a quote, and an overview of Treegap, a small town, before introducing the Tuck family cabin, which is a day’s ride from town. The Tucks have a secret – they drank from a spring while passing through the woods and haven’t aged a day since them, for 87 years.
Winnie Foster is a 10-year-old girl, unhappy at home for no concrete reason, and she crosses paths with the Tucks while playing near the same spring they drew their immortality from. The Tuck family doesn’t want the little girl to drink from the spring, because remaining a child for centuries is not going to be fun. The Tucks then kidnap Winnie after revealing their secret, in order to ensure she wouldn’t tell about it to anyone else. Their plan is to help Winnie understand the dangers of immortality and then let her go.
And then things get a bit weird in ‘Tuck Everlasting’, because Jesse Tuck, who is technically a 104-year-old man trapped in a 17-year-old’s body, propositions Winnie, asking her to wait till she turns 17 to drink the spring water and become his wife. The man has lived over a century and couldn’t find someone his fake age? Some 17 or 18 or older? Why a 10 year old child? Creepy.
Although I am not sure how author Natalie Babbitt expands upon Jesse’s interest in little Winnie, at least it’s not the focus of this graphic novel version of ‘Tuck Everlasting’. Instead, the story is mostly about Winnie becoming friends with the Tuck family, while being skeptical about their claims of immortality. Meanwhile a mysterious man spies on them and seems to know something about their secret, which leads to a lot new trouble for the family, who also becomes suspects in Winnie’s disappearance (well, rightfully so).
So there’s significant mystery in ‘Tuck Everlasting’ over whether the Tuck family secret be exposed, and if not, will Winnie really drink the spring water and become immortal herself.
The artwork in this graphic novel version of ‘Tuck Everlasting’ is beautiful, it’s got a slight childlike touch, with the pages seeming a mix of crayons and paints. It’s definitely the art which was more enjoyable in the book than the plot itself.
In the end, this is an interesting tale about how immortality and eternal youth isn’t something to aspire for, that death is perhaps humanity’s strongest strength.
Rating for ‘Tuck Everlasting’: 3 on 5 stars.
Read Next: The Housemaid Book Versus Film – 12 Differences (Audio Version Below)