Babbitt insists that there will never be a sequel to Tuck Everlasting, though many people have asked for one. She argues that the Tucks themselves, despite their immortality are of interest only in so far as their lives intersect with Winnie Foster's. For this reason she has also turned down a suggested television series based on the book. There is a motion picture version of Tuck Everlasting, however, which is generally faithful to the novel and has received good reviews. Filmed in upstate New York by director Frederick King Keller in 1980, it stars Margaret Chamberlain and Paula Flessa. The movie is available on videotape.

Many of Babbitt's other novels, however, share something very important with Tuck Everlasting. If Babbitt has one overreaching theme in her work, it may well be the necessity of coming to terms both with the past and the passage of time. The...