Natalie Babbitt (1932–2016)

Young Jenny comes to stay with her fiercely independent grandmother, who waits for a sea-borne sign from a husband drowned thirty years ago aboard the ship Amaryllis. As Jenny soon discovers, others are also transfixed by the sea's tragedies: an unloved son, a silly woman, a ghost.

The language of The Eyes of the Amaryllis is beautiful, and the story lightly treads the line between small domestic conflicts and such surreal touches as a ship sailing across the bottom of the sea and a man show more ceaselessly following his steps across the sand.

Jenny cracked eggs -- twelve of them, a whole dozen days of labor for some unknown, dedicated hen -- and beat their slippery whites into a rigid cloud of foam. She had beaten egg whites often before, but now she saw the process as yet another transformation. She sifted flour, measured the sugar, watched as Gran folded everything into a batter smooth and pale as thickened cream. Transformations again. And the humble dailiness of these activities only increased the knowledge that, at some undetermined point, her world had slid away a final barrier and allowed that other world to merge with it at last, like the fog moving in from nowhere, into the air she breathed, changing its flavor, giving it a richness it had not had before. Like the scent of the angel-food cake drifting out from the oven to fill the house with promises. Like the head on the parlor table. [93] show less

When I first read this, I was younger than ten years old. I remember because I thought Natalie Babbitt was Natalie Imbruglia, and thought how cool she must have been to write both this book and the hit song "Torn" that was on the radio all the time. A gentle note to little kid me: they're not the same person, and this book came out twenty years before the song did. I didn't understand half the book when I read it the first time. I read it again when I was like...thirteen or something. I show more remember thinking it was amazing, and rolling my eyes at the movie adaptation trailer. While dramatic, I knew it would take serious padding to make into a movie. Now I've read it as an adult. The book jacket describes a suspenseful, plot-charged story, but the reality itself is a character study of utter slowness. It's supposed to be that way, in my mind: shows the reader just how boring immortality combined with invincibility would be. A lot of dark concepts are brought up in a book intended for children, but they're explored in ways that...I guess work. At the same time: hey Jesse. I get that you're starved for new company, but you just asked a ten-year-old to marry you. I don't care that it's the 1880s. That's creepy. And the kidnapping, and the--so many action-y parts of the book were actually unsettling, but couched in the slowness of the writing, I couldn't be scared. I feel kind of gross now. I think this is a specific kind of book for children, and I'm glad it's still around. I might get copies for my nieces, or tell them about it. show less

Tuck Everlasting is an elegant read-- a small story with a big heart. On the surface, it's about a family who unknowingly drank from a "fountain of youth," and the little girl who stumbles upon their secret. On a deeper level, it's about a child making important realizations about what it means to grow up and earn some freedom from one's family. Winnie struggles with fear and the discomfort of being away from the reassuring, if somewhat oppressive bosom of her family, but ultimately learns show more to take a stand based on what she alone believes is important.

Despite what many of the reviews say, I don't find the ending to be sad at all! I think it's a perfect ending.... show less

First published a little more than forty years ago, Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting is a classic of modern children's literature, one which engrosses the reader wholly and (I suspect) haunts them long afterward. Opening in the first week of August - described in the opening passage as hanging "at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year" - it concerns the adventures of ten-year-old Winifred Foster, who meets the immortal Tuck family and, in an astonishing three days of show more knowing them, is awakened to complex questions about the nature of life and time, and the joy and grief of making choices. Having drunk from a spring which grants eternal life, the Tucks have been wandering for more than eighty years, returning every once in a while to the spring - now located in a wood belonging to Winnie's family - that began it all. Determined to protect the secret, the Tucks must take Winnie into their confidence when she discovers the spring, hoping to convince her that it would be a disaster if the world discovered its waters. But as these events unfold, a sinister man in a yellow suit is pursuing the Tucks, and their secret, determined to profit from the spring, and to enact his own vision of eternal life...

A book I have long meant to read - I've owned a copy for over a decade - Tuck Everlasting is a story that a wish I had read first as a child, not because I failed to appreciate it now, as an adult - indeed, it is the sort of book that rewards readers of all ages, simple enough for those looking for an engaging story, complex enough for those interested in more philosophical questions - but because I suspect it would have been a great favorite, read and reread many times over the years. I regret the missed opportunity of having grown up with this story, but then, as is amply demonstrated in Babbitt's narrative, all choices have consequences. The language here is beautiful, richly descriptive and immensely evocative, and the story thought-provoking. The idea of time as a wheel, something which 'book-ends' the story, is fascinating, as is the overall premise that everlasting life is not entirely a blessing. I was struck, upon finishing the story, by how different the perspective offered here is, compared to the ubiquitous vampire-romance novels that depict joining loved ones in eternal life as self-evidently desirable. This is just a lovely, lovely story, one I will be pondering for some time. I am glad to have finally read it - prompted by the fact that I will shortly be attending the musical production made from it, here in New York - and hope to read more of the author's work. show less