Age: 2nd-5th grade
Award: ALA Notable

Soon to be 11-years-old, Winnie declares to a friendly toad that she intends to run away, but not because her family rejects her but she feels stifled in her prim and proper house. She enters her family's woods and admires the beauty and cool reprieve that the colors offer. She stumbles upon a boy drinking from a fountain bubbling from the ground and asks for a drink. His mother and brother soon arrive and whisk Winnie away before she can fully understand what's happening. At the Tuck's house, Winnie finds comfort in their caring embrace. She also finds out that the Tuck family is immortal, having drunk from the same spring mentioned before. They confide their story in Winnie and ask her to never reveal it to anyone because immortality brings with it great sorrow. This secret is soon challenged when a man in a yellow suit seeks to exploit the spring's powers. The Tuck mother kills the man with the butt of a shotgun and is sent to jail. Winnie helps the family escape by posing as the mother. The younger boy Winnie first met asks her to drink from the spring once she reaches his age. In the epilogue, it is revealed that Winnie does not follow his offer and dies a married woman.

The speed of the narrative should keep the interest of the reader throughout, but the ending may go on a bit too long for some. Immortality--which is oftentimes glorified in Hollywood and comics--sets up a good discussion of being alive and *participating* in the circle of life.

A good replacement for the younger readers who desire to read Twilight.