Tuck Everlasting
Acceptable with guidance. Age: 10+. A Catholic review of this book for parents.
Our review
A beautifully written book about why endless earthly life would be a curse. Tuck teaches Winnie that growing old and dying belong to a good life, and he hopes for heaven. That is a true lesson told with great tenderness. The reservation is the ending's moral shortcuts: Winnie sneaks out, and she helps a woman who killed a man break out of jail.
For parents
Read aloud from 9, independent reading from 10. Ask why Tuck would rather die than live forever, and what Christians hope for after death (CCC 1020). Talk about Mae's blow: protecting a child can be right (CCC 2265), but ask whether breaking her out of jail was. Ask how Winnie could have obeyed her family.