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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSTen-year-old Winnie Foster has spent her whole life inside the tidy, fenced yard of her family's cottage near a wood they own but never enter. One hot August morning she finally slips into the trees and comes upon a boy named Jesse Tuck drinking from a hidden spring. Before she can take a sip herself, Jesse's mother and brother ride up and sweep Winnie away to their home in the pine hills, desperate to keep her from swallowing the water. On the journey there, Winnie learns that the Tuck family drank from that spring eighty-seven years ago and has not aged or died since, and now a mysterious stranger in a yellow suit has been shadowing them all, hunting for exactly that secret.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Tuck Everlasting
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about Tuck Everlasting. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book does a girl tell a toad she might run away first thing in the morning?
✓ Answer
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Tired of her overprotective mother and grandmother, Winnie confides in a toad outside the fence that she plans to run away while everyone is still asleep. The toad gives no sign of interest.
- First half
In what book is a horse shot by hunters who mistook him for a deer?
✓ Answer
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Among the strange events that revealed the family's gift, hunters shot the family horse one evening, mistaking him for a deer. The bullet went right through and the horse survived without a real wound.
- First half
In what book does a man say his cursed family is like rocks beside the road?
✓ Answer
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Angus laments to Winnie that without the chance to die, his family is not truly living. He compares them to rocks beside the road, set apart from the great wheel of life.
- Second half
In what book does a girl beg "Put it back, Miles" after watching a rainbow-scaled fish flop in the boat?
✓ Answer
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Winnie watches a beautiful trout gasping in the bottom of the rowboat and suddenly cannot stand it. She begs Miles to release the fish, and he gently works the hook free and drops it back into the pond.
- Second half
In what book does a mother swing a shotgun like a wheel and crack it into a man's skull?
✓ Answer
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Mae snatches up the long-forgotten shotgun by the barrel when the man in the yellow suit drags Winnie outside. She swings it like a club to stop him from giving away the secret of the spring.
- Near the end
In what book does a wooden gallows blow over in a storm beside a jailhouse?
✓ Answer
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
While Winnie hides under the blanket all night, she hears a crash she does not understand. In the morning she sees that the wind blew down the gallows next to the jail.
