Natalie Zane Babbitt (née Moore; July 28, 1932 – October 31, 2016) was an American writer and
illustrator of children's books. Her 1975 novel Tuck Everlasting was adapted into two feature films and a Broadway musical. She received the
Newbery Honor and
Christopher Award, and was the U.S. nominee for the biennial international
Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1982.[2]
The Babbitts collaborated to create The Forty-ninth Magician, a
picture book, that he wrote and she illustrated, published by
Pantheon Books in 1966. Samuel became too busy to participate but editor Michael di Capua, at
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, encouraged Natalie to continue producing children's books.[6] After writing and illustrating two short books in verse, she turned to children's novels, and her fourth effort in that vein, Knee-Knock Rise, was awarded a
Newbery Honor in 1971.[7]
Tuck Everlasting, published in 1975, was named an
ALA Notable book and continues to be popular with teachers.[8] It was ranked 16th among the "Top 100 Chapter Books" of all time in a 2012 survey published by School Library Journal.[9] Two of her books have been
adapted as movies: Tuck Everlasting (twice,
in 1981[10] and
in 2002[11]) and The Eyes of the Amaryllis in 1982.[12] The novel was also adapted as
a Broadway musical, which premiered in
Atlanta on February 4, 2015, and played on Broadway from April 26 to May 29, 2016.[13]
In addition to her own writing, Babbitt also illustrated a number of books by
Valerie Worth.[14] Babbitt died on October 31, 2016, at her home in
Hamden, Connecticut. She had recently been diagnosed with
lung cancer.[15]
Critical appraisal
With the novel Goody Hall (1971), the writer was a finalist in the
Edgar Allan Poe Award.
In 1977, The New York Times called Babbitt "Indisputably one of our most gifted and ambitious writers for children".[16]
In 1982, another Times reviewer, George Woods, enjoyed Babbitt's Herbert Rowbarge. "Mrs. Babbitt creates a plausible world and peoples it with believable humans, but the most satisfaction comes from the pleasure of her company as she effortlessly takes the reader in velvet-gloved hand to point out life's coincidences and near misses."[17]
In 2002, Melanie Rehak, also writing in the Times, described Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting as a "slim, ruminative" novel, and stated that "From the moment it appeared, it has been fiercely loved by children and their parents for its honest, intelligent grappling with aging and death."[18]
^"Babbitt, Natalie". Library of Congress Authorities (lccn.loc.gov). Retrieved September 24, 2015.
^"Babbitt, Natalie". Children's books and their creators. Anita Silvey, editor. Houghton Mifflin. 1995. p. 43.
^
ab"Natalie Babbitt". Courtesy of Natalie Babbitt. 1996. ipl2 (ipl.org). Retrieved February 5, 2013.
^"Biography: Natalie Babbitt"Archived August 27, 2011, at the
Wayback Machine. Scholastic Teachers (scholastic.com/teachers). Retrieved September 24, 2015. With linked transcript of an interview by Scholastic students (no date).
Marina Caracciolo, Un romanzo fantastico non esclusivamente per ragazzi: La fonte magica (Tuck Everlasting), di Natalie Babbitt; in Otto saggi brevi, Genesi Editrice, Torino (I), 2017