Natalie Babbitt (July 28, 1932 – October 31, 2016) was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. For her contributions as a children's writer, she was U.S. nominee for the biennial international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1982.

Biography

Born Natalie Zane Moore in Dayton, Ohio on July 28, 1932, Babbitt studied at Laurel School in Cleveland and Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She was married to Samuel Fisher Babbitt and the couple have three children, born between 1956 and 1960. The family lived in Samuel's home town of New Haven, Connecticut, until he earned a PhD in 1965 and became the president of Kirkland College in Clinton, New York (1965 to 1978).

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. After writing and illustrating two short books in verse, she turned to children's novels, and her second effort in that vein, Knee-Knock Rise, was awarded a Newbery Honor in 1971.

Tuck Everlasting, published in 1975, was named an ALA Notable book and continues to be popular with teachers. It was ranked number 16 among the "Top 100 Chapter Books" of all time in a 2012 survey published by School Library Journal. Two of her books have been adapted as movies: Tuck Everlasting twice, in 1981 and 2002, and The Eyes of the Amaryllis in 1982. 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.

In addition to her own writing, Babbitt also illustrated a number of books by Valerie Worth.

Reception

In 1977, The New York Times called Babbitt "Indisputably one of our most gifted and ambitious writers for children".

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."

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."

In 2012, Babbitt was awarded the inaugural E.B. White Award for achievement in children's literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Death

Babbitt died on October 31, 2016 at her home in Hamden, Connecticut. She had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer.

Bibliography

Picture books (‡) were written and illustrated by Babbitt unless noted otherwise.

• 1967 Dick Foote and the Shark ‡
• 1968 Phoebe's Revolt ‡
• 1969 The Search for Delicious, self-illus.
• 1970 Knee-Knock Rise, self-illus.
• 1970 The Something ‡
• 1971 Goody Hall, self-illus.
• 1974 The Devil's Storybook, self-illus.
• 1976 Tuck Everlasting
• 1977 The Eyes of the Amaryllis
• 1982 Herbert Rowbarge
• 1987 The Devil's Other Storybook, self-illus.
• 1989 Nellie: A Cat on Her Own ‡
• 1990 "Bus for deadhorse", illus. Jon Agee, in Ann Durrell and Marilyn Sachs, eds., The Big Book for Peace (E. P. Dutton)
• 1994 Bub: Or the Very Best Thing ‡
• 1998 Ouch!: A Tale from Grimm, illus. Fred Marcellino ‡
• 2001 Elsie Times Eight ‡
• 2007 Jack Plank Tells Tales, self-illus.
• 2011 The Moon Over High Street
• 2012 The Devil's Storybooks – omnibus edition of The Devil's Storybook and The Devil's Other Storybook

• 1966 Samuel Babbitt, The Forty-ninth Magician ‡
• 1972 Valerie Worth, Small Poems
• 1976 Valerie Worth, More Small Poems
• 1978 Valerie Worth, Still More Small Poems
• 1980 Valerie Worth, Curlicues, the Fortunes of Two Pug Dogs
• 1985 Valerie Worth, Small Poems Again
• 1986 Valerie Worth, Other Small Poems Again
• 1987 Valerie Worth, All the Small Poems
• 1994 Valerie Worth, All the Small Poems and Fourteen More
• 2002 Valerie Worth, Peacock and Other Poems