Many middle school students lose the desire to read as they get deeper involved in social life. They need encouragement and classroom opportunities to read interesting and challenging material to keep the reading desire alive. This unit focusing on the novel Tuck Everlasting will fill that need. The deeper issues involving aging will make this a hit in classroom discussion since many of these children are observing the decline of beloved grandparents even as they themselves are immersed in the culture of youth. The unit meets TN Curriculum Standard for Language Arts/Reading grades 6-8 which states: "The student will develop the reading skills necessary for word recognition, comprehension, interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and appreciation of the written text." The unit also addresses Survey item #22 (My students use Internet in my classroom to research topics) because the students will be doing research in related activities using the Web.