Every once in a while I think about the book Holes, one of the few books I actually remembered reading in elementary school. My favorite books in the fifth grade were more of the fun adventure genre than classic children’s lit, which was perhaps why many of the assigned books I’d read at the time didn’t interest me. But Holes stuck because we watched the movie in class and looking back at it now, it was an intense story!

“I can’t believe they made kids read about those things,” I’d said to an old friend once upon a time. “The morals and themes were pretty mature for a fifth grader.”

“I think it’s because teachers try to have children read as much as they can,” he’d said insightfully. “Before they grow up.”

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Be afraid of an unlived life. You don’t have to live forever, you just have to live.

Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting

Disguised as a simple children’s novel, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt tells of a young girl named Winnie Foster who is at the cusp of teenage hood. Her parents are wealthy but domineering. She longs for freedom outside her strict, lonesome world and finds just that when she stumbles upon a boy in the woods named Jesse Tuck. He leads her to his family, where she discovers that all of them are, well, immortal.

Afraid their secret will be exposed, the Tucks take Winnie under their wing. She learns of their lifestyle and views on the world, and for once in her life she feels free. But when trouble strikes and the Tuck family’s secret is threatened, she must decide whether she wants to return to her old life or stay with them forever.

The movie sticks quite true to the book (for the most part) and stars Alexis Bledel as Winnie Foster and Jonathan Jackson as Jesse Tuck, who both bless the audience with plenty of white lace and rosy cheeks. With a tad of suspense and insightful dialogue on the beauty of life, Tuck Everlasting remains as a precious treat to the mind beyond adolescence. In fact, it may be more applicable to today’s suffering youth more than ever.