Read to Write When Natalie Babbitt was asked for her advice to writers, her answer was: “Read.” On August 1, join me for a FREE online study of Natalie Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting. Within a few words, we’ll discover that Babbitt follwed her own advice. In many ways, Tuck Everlasting is a tribute to Ray Bradbury’s…
Author: jackikellum
A Few Things to Know about Dionysus of Ancient Greek Mythology, The Feast of Bacchus, and The Last Supper: My Thoughts about the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics
At the opening of the 2024 Summer Olympics, a depiction of a feast celebration sparked heated discussions–especially among many Americans, who assumed that the depiction was a disrespectul representation of the Biblical Last Supper. In my opinion, the feast depicted was the Feast of Ancient Greece’s Mythological Dionysus, whose Roman counterpart was Bacchus. Both Dionysus…
It’s All Relative — But Should It Be? Challenge: Really Look at a Female Cardinal Until You See Her
A couple of days ago, I was sitting in My Morning Chair and watching the array of birds that were dropping in and out of my birdfeeders. They shifted and re-shifted every few seconds, and it seemed that I was looking at my garden through a kaleidoscope. I am rather new to the hobby of…
How to Compost to Create Soil for Your Garden
During my lifetime, I have lived and gardened in several parts of the country, and in almost every place I have lived, I have been forced to amend my garden’s soil. Before I moved back to Mississippi, I lived and gardened in the Ozark Mountains, where most of the earth is covered by bedrock. In…
Tuck Everlasting August 1 – A Celebration of Time and Nature — A Celebration of Life
On August 1, I will begin what I plan to make an annual tradition. I’ll begin a deep dive into Natalie Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting. Tuck Everlasting is a Celebration of Time–Time as it relates to the Seasons and the Seasons of Life–and TIme as it relates to the clock. Most people are deeply aware of…
Tuck Everlasting Chapter 8 – Winnie Experiences Freedom
Winnie did not believe in fairy tales. She had never longed for a magic wand, did not expect to marry a prince, and was scornful—most of the time—of her grandmother’s elves. So now she sat, mouth open, wide-eyed, not knowing what to make of this extraordinary story. It couldn’t—not a bit of it—be true. And…
Tuck Everlasting Chapter 7 – The Tucks Tell Their Story – Where They Came From & Why – Why They Stopped Aging
It was the strangest story Winnie had ever heard. She soon suspected they had never told it before, except to each other—that she was their first real audience; for they gathered around her like children at their mother’s knee, each trying to claim her attention, and sometimes they all talked at once, and interrupted each…
Tuck Everlasting Chapter 6 – Winnie Is Whisked Away but Calmed by the Music Box – Power of Music
At the end of Chapter 5, Winnie and Jesse were tangling. She wanted to drink from the pool in the Wood, and Jesse did not want her to do that. Suddenly. she was whisled away:: “Afterward, when she thought about it, it seemed to Winnie that the next tew minutes were only a blur. First…
Tuck Everlasting – Chapter 5 – Winnie’s First Venture into the Wood – Read to Learn about Mankind’s Connection to Trees, Nature Writing, Description, and Creating Characters – Jesse Tuck
Chapter 5 takes place the morning after Winnie, her grandmother, and the man in the yellow suit heard the twinkling sound coming from the Wood. “Winnie woke early next morning. The sun was only just opening its own eye on the eastern horizon and the cottage was full of silence.” Babbitt, Tuck, pg. 22 Winnie…
Tuck Everlasting Chapter 4 – A Brush with Darkness – Read to Learn to Write with Literary Themes – More Character Development & The Use of Ambiguity in Writing – Celebrating the Moon
Chapter 4 of Tuck Everlasting deals with the literary theme of Darkness Versus Light. Not surprisingly, this chapter takes place during the Evening — the Dark Time of Day, but right away, we realize that Winnie is catching fireflies–an actvity that introduces light into the darkness. She is not a dark character. Like a firefly…