Though I still find Tuck Everlasting silly and depressing, I have found some saving graces that will help make it teachable. The language is beautiful, intricate, and descriptive. And, I think it could help children come to grips with the circle of life, especially when a beloved aged and ailing pet is lost or even an elderly grandparent. I don't think it would do any good at all with helping deal with the death of another child or a parent.
The second book that Gabriel is to read this summer is The White Mountains, the first of the Tripods series of books by John Christopher. So, we go from fantasy to science fiction and finish with another fantasy (The Hobbit--in abridged form) for a 5th grader! Odd, I think, because there is little variety of genre, because The Hobbit in it's unabridged form is an eighth grade book, and because this is a prestigious Catholic school and one would think the concentration on, not only fiction, but fantasy, would be a bit irregular. But, even worse, her eighth grader, also in a prestigious Catholic school, has In Cold Blood on his summer reading list! Now this is a book that a Catholic school (or any responsible school, one would think) would want to help guide students through, not leave them to flail alone with during the summer! I told Skippy to read the book with her son and help guide him...he will need it.
As for The White Mountains, I have just started. I am enjoying the Preface in which Christopher is explaining why he took on this project and what he learned from doing it. He pretty much repeats what another author of both children's and adults' sci-fi said to me at a reading teacher's convention many years back, "Children's books are much better edited than adult books." John Christopher notes that children's book editors are much better and more thorough than editors of adult books.
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