CHECK OUT LITLAND.COM!!

After a lot of work and a short delay, our new website is unveiled! Please stop in for a look at www.litland.com . After looking around in our “reading room” a bit, click anywhere to enter, and you will find...

* book reviews for ages 9-18. We are the only reviewer of children’s books to use a criteria based upon accepted definitions of good character. Reading books whose main characters learn from their mistakes and demonstrate good choices assist in forming the same in the mind of the child. Such books support character education and citizenship initiatives in your school, and family values in your home. They can be useful tools in discussion groups too. As you compile your summer reading list for your children or students, encourage the child towards these books. Although we review books that often do not meet our criteria (and so have not been posted on our website), we do have several reviews for great books in each age group to upload in the near future. So please keep checking for new reviews!

* Don’t forget our blog which has companion commentary for each book review: www.litlandcom.blogspot.com . Give us your thoughts about these books or ask questions too!

* The parents and teachers corner has extensive activities for many of the books we have reviewed. Even if you do not plan to read the book, check out the activities as the websites may be of interest for either personal or classroom use.

* Over 400 items in our bookstore have been hand selected with extra information given when helpful. We keep in mind how these books can be used: family book clubs, friends reading marathons, and as tools for connecting all subjects in the classroom/homeschool curriculum. For example, our Laura Ingalls Wilder store has versions of her books for all age groups, including biographies for each reading level, and a cookbook. This can be particularly useful for families reading together or homeschooling, allowing all members of the family to read versions of the books appropriate for their age and ability.

* Our bookstore also includes a teaching and homeschooling area housing books and materials to complement the subjects typically taught across early grades through high school.

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Our mission is to illuminate wonderful books that demonstrate to children the best of humanity for a greater purpose of developing good citizens who will lead our future. Would you please assist us in this purpose by forwarding this information to all of your Facebook friends? Don’t stop there...share it with friends, family, teachers, principles, librarians, doctors and neighbors too. And if they do not have kids or students, they likely know someone who does!

Thanks again for your support,

Debra Black

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” ~Ann Frank

So what do we think? Tuck Everlasting

 So what do we think? Tuck Everlasting

Babbitt, Natalie. (1975) Tuck Everlasting. Thorndike Press/Square Fish, Scholastic Inc. ISBN 10: 0312369816; reviewed ISBN 0-7862-5181-6. Publisher reading level grades 5-6. Litland.com age recommendation 10-14. See full review at http://www.litland.com/

Publisher description: Time drags by for Winnie Foster, an eleven-year-old girl who lives in a house bordering the woods owned by her family. Winnie spends her summer days under the watchful eye of her grandmother. Most of the time it's too hot to be out in the sun, and when Winnie does actually venture outside, she never goes beyond the fence of the yard. But one morning she sneaks away into the woods and there she sees a young man drinking from a mysterious spring of water he uncovers at the base of tree. The young man, Jesse Tuck, discovers Winnie watching him. So he kidnaps her.


Our thoughts:


This is a fabulous story. Mae and Angus Tuck, along with sons Miles and Jesse, have a problem; they accidentally became immortal. But they don’t want to be. Angus Tuck dreams of what it is like to go to Heaven, and teaches Winnie about the wheel of life which his family has “stepped off”. While at first the Tucks may seem to be the ‘bad guys” as they kidnap Winnie, we see the truly bad person is the man in the yellow jacket who manipulates people and information to paint a false picture of the situation. Then using this to his advantage, he coerces the Fosters into making a decisions to give up part of their local legacy. The author goes beyond just the unjust act itself (manipulation of the Fosters) to letting us know its true consequences: chipping away at the family heritage.

There is a scene near the end where Mae Tuck shoots the man in the yellow jacket. Rather than unnecessary detail of the shot’s physical impact, Babbitt stays focused on the meaning and consequences of the action itself. In doing so, she strengthens the moment rather than depleting it.

Her writing style is rich with nary a word wasted. The reader is left feeling love and care for all of the earth’s creatures, compassion for the Tucks, and respect for others who don’t understand but are well meaning. We can picture in our minds the toad, the heat wave, early morning fishing, and the heaving of the galloping horse.

This is also a story of a girl coming of age in 1880. A time in history when children were still allowed to be children and, yet, once a teen they take on adult responsibilities quickly. For the first time, Winnie has her own life experiences that are not shared by her family, and so she is learning how to deal with that feeling of loving and hating independence at the same time; having a secret you can’t share with those who love you even though it isn’t a bad secret; having to use adult wisdom at a young age. It is an interesting way to look at childhood, that of having shared experiences contrasted with those that a person experiences independent from their family, and the reader can feel the confused emotions thanks to the author’s excellent work. When with the Tucks, Winnie enjoyed having them as her own friends that she didn’t share with her family. Now that they needed help, it was an uncertain state of mind in which to be.

All of this is held within the context of the Tuck’s view of themselves. Although voiced by son Miles, it is clear the entire family sees that they should make a difference in the world. The domino and ripple effects of the actions by one single person are known and felt. Winnie chooses to make a difference in the world. She realizes she must make small mistakes to accomplish the larger mission of protecting the world from the curse held in the spring’s water. As in the old poem quoted in the book:

“Stone walls do not a prison make,

Nor iron bars a cage.”

There are other kinds of prisons in life, and the Tucks were living in one until the end of time.  

This is an excellent book for families to read together. It is appropriate for all ages, although of most interest to readers in 5th-8th grades. Choosing this story for your family reading hour or book club will give you much to talk through, and grow together as a family. It would also be an excellent teacher choice for in-class reading. In either the home or school settings, this book would be useful in an integrated curriculum using literature to learn about American history in the 19th century. Talking about books such as Tuck Everlasting is an important part of understanding and growing in our own value system, while also giving concrete examples for good behaviour to emulate. We cannot say enough about this great book!

So what do we think? The Neil Gaiman interview

Author Neil Gaiman’s Dark World: CBS interview available at


http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6282354n&tag=contentMain;contentBody .

Wondering who is the mind behind the books Coraline and The Graveyard Book? Get a peek into the mind of Neil Gaiman. Joking about his serial-killer doll and acknowledging he sees the joy of the monsters and ghost fiction is in “the miraculous”, we can better understand how his fascination for the dark side of the supernatural world flavors and guides his writing.

As an example, in the book and movie Coraline, the character ends up in a world on “the other side”. She doesn’t choose to go back to her family because of love for the family. Rather, it is a self-serving choice in which she prefers her dysfunctional life over that presented in the world “on the other side”. It has been praised as being kiddie pre-Goth.

In contrast, Litland.com continues to uncover books that nurture the soul rather than test it. Unlike other book reviewers who promote all new releases and top sellers, we highlight those plus lesser-known authors whose plots present choices of right over wrong and whose characters (while not perfect) can think selflessly of others. We encourage families to talk about all potential books and together choose which to read.

We support parents and teachers who select books that demonstrate the behaviour they wish to see in their students and children. As author Linda Sue Parker recently stated "Reading is the safest way to practice your life".

So what do YOU think?