Introduced by Gregory Maguire, a special 40th Anniversary Edition of the beloved children’s classic with more than more than 10 million copies sold. From Newbery Honor and E. B. White Award–winning author Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting is a spellbinding modern-day masterpiece about immortality, friendship, and growing up that’s sure to be an all-time favorite for every generation. What if you could live forever? In this timeless story young Winnie Foster learns of a hidden spring in a nearby wood and meets the Tuck family, whose members reveal their astonishing discovery of the spring’s life-changing power. Now Winnie must decide what to do with her newfound knowledge―and the Tucks must decide what to do with her. But it’s not just the curious girl who is interested in their remarkable tale. A suspicious stranger is also searching for the Tucks, and he will stop at nothing until he finds them and uncovers their secret. A staple on home bookshelves and in classrooms and libraries for half a century, Tuck Everlasting is brought to life for new readers and long-time fans in this special anniversary edition, which includes an introduction from the bestselling author of Wicked Gregory Maguire, a Q&A with Natalie Babbitt, and exciting bonus materials. Praise for Tuck Everlasting : “Probably the best work of our best children's novelist.” ― Harper's “Exciting and excellently written.” ― The New York Times Book Review “A fearsome and beautifully written book that can't be put down or forgotten.” ― The New Yorker “Probably the best work of our best children's novelist.” ― Harper's “Exciting and excellently written.” ― The New York Times Book Review “A fearsome and beautifully written book that can't be put down or forgotten.” ― The New Yorker “This book is as shapely, crisp, sweet, and tangy as a summer-ripe pear.” ― Entertainment Weekly “With its serious intentions and light touch the story is, like the Tucks, timeless.” ― Chicago Sun-Times “Rarely does one find a book with such prose. Flawless in both style and structure, it is rich in imagery and punctuated with light fillips of humor. The author manipulates her plot deftly, dealing with six main characters brought together because of a spring whose waters can bestow everlasting life. . . . Underlying the drama is the dilemma of the age-old desire for perpetual youth.” ― The Horn Book Magazine “Natalie Babbitt's great skill is spinning fantasy with the lilt and sense of timeless wisdom of the old fairy tales. . . . It lingers on, haunting your waking hours, making you ponder.” ― The Boston Globe “Beautiful and descriptive language is the strength of Babbitt's fantasy about Winnie and her encounter with the Tuck family, who cause her―and readers―to ponder an important question: What would it be like to live forever?” ― Booklist Artist and writer Natalie Babbitt (1932–2016) is the award-winning author of the modern classic Tuck Everlasting and many other brilliantly original books for young people. As the mother of three small children, she began her career in 1966 by illustrating The Forty-Ninth Magician , written by her husband, Samuel Babbitt. She soon tried her own hand at writing, publishing two picture books in verse. Her first novel, The Search for Delicious , was published in 1969 and established her reputation for creating magical tales with profound meaning. Kneeknock Rise earned Babbitt a Newbery Honor in 1971, and she went on to write―and often illustrate―many more picture books, story collections, and novels. She also illustrated the five volumes in the Small Poems series by Valerie Worth. In 2002, Tuck Everlasting was adapted into a major motion picture, and in 2016 a musical version premiered on Broadway. Born and raised in Ohio, Natalie Babbitt lived her adult life in the Northeast. Tuck EverlastingChapter 1 The road that led to Treegap had been trod out long before by a herd of cows who were, to say the least, relaxed. It wandered along in curves and easy angles, swayed off and up in a pleasant tangent to the top of a small hill, ambled down again between fringes of bee-hung clover, and then cut sidewise across a meadow. Here its edges blurred. It widened and seemed to pause, suggesting tranquil bovine picnics: slow chewing and thoughtful contemplation of the infinite. And then it went on again and came at last to the wood. But on reaching the shadows of the first trees, it veered sharply, swung out in a wide arc as if, for the first time, it had reason to think where it was going, and passed around. On the other side of the wood, the sense of easiness dissolved. The road no longer belonged to the cows. It became, instead, and rather abruptly, the property of people. And all at once the sun was uncomfortably hot, the dust oppressive, and the meager grass along its edges somewhat ragged and forlorn. On the left stood the first house, a square and solid cottage with a touch-me-not appearance,