Natalie Babbitt Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Picture Books

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Beth Seidel Levine Children's Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Natalie Babbit was a classics, fantasy and children’s book author and illustrator of children’s fiction best known for writing “Tuck Everlasting.” The author was born in Dayton Ohio and as a child, she first thought she wanted to grow up and become a pirate. By the time she was in the second grade, she was thinking that she wanted to become a librarian. Thinking back to that time, she believes she would have been a good librarian as she loved reading while she would have been a terrible pirate as she disliked heavy exercise. In the stacks or below deck, she would probably have found a quiet spot to draw pictures and scribble stories. As an author, she was known for writing about immortality and mermaids from the sea. As an illustrator, she was a drawer of children most of whom were lovers of books just like her.

Babbit spent many of those early childhood years reading myths, fairy tales and drawing. Her mother was an amateur portrait and landscape painter and gave her the early art lessons and ensured that she always had enough pencils, paint, paper and encouragement to cultivate her passion. During this time, all she wanted to be was pursue a career as an illustrator and hence when she went to Smith College and Cleveland’s Laurel School where she specialized in art. Immediately after she graduated from college, she got married to academic administrator Samuel Fisher Babbitt. She would then spend the next decade living in Washington DC, Tennessee and Connecticut where she started a family. Natalie Babbit collaborated with her husband in the writing of “The Forty-Ninth Magician” a children’s novel that they published in 1966. The couple moved to New York soon after as her husband had been offered a position at Kirkland College. Having lost her writing partner who was busy being a college president, Babbitt decided to become an author in her own right. She still loves to illustrate stories though writing her novels is as equally satisfying and challenging prospect.

When Natalie Babbitt started writing she thought rhyme was what would work for her and hence “Phoebe’s Revolt” and “Dick Foote” and The Shark which were some of her earliest works were written in verse. However, her following work “The Search” could not be written in verse and she wrote it in prose. The work was inspired by the many myths and folk tales he read as a child and modified for contemporary readers. After this, she wrote a fantasy like work in “Kneeknock Rise” followed by “Goody Hall.” “The Something” was a picture novel that she wrote inspired by her dislike for the dark. Since then she has been working as an illustrator and has been the lead illustrator for five books from Valerie Worth. She has also illustrated and written two storybooks named “The Devil’s Other Storybook” and “The Devil’s Storybook.” Before this, she had written her most popular work yet in “Tuck Everlasting.” The novel provides insights into how immortality may not be a blessing but a curse. “Nellie: A Cat on Her Own” was her first ever full color picture book that was called a graceful and charming work by Booklist which gave it a starred review. Natalie Babbitt is now a grandmother who makes her home in Providence, Rhode Island.

“Tuck Everlasting” by Natalie Babbitt is the story of the Tuck family. The Tucks are a salt of the Earth family that is composed of a husband the wife and their children aged 22 and 17.The story is set in the late eighteenth century where the family gets their drinking water from a forest spring that happens to be a fountain of youth. This makes them immortals that are permanently stuck at the age at which they drank the water and unable to die. Several years later, Winnie Foster is a young girl that finds their secret and the Tuck family takes her while figuring out what to do. Meanwhile, they try to convince her not to take a drink from their spring or tell other people about it. But Jesse the youngest of the sons tells her she would be better off drinking the spring water when she turns seventeen as she can then join him in immortality.

The novel is a circle of life type of work with water drifting forever towards the ocean, the Ferris wheel turning and the seasons passing. The Tuck family feels stuck even as the people all around them are growing and changing, dying and living.

Natalie Babbitt’s “The Search for Delicious” is the story of the quest to write a dictionary. The Prime minister has made it his life’s mission to have a perfect dictionary for his domain and he will not be swayed. But when he gets to the word delicious, he cannot find a single definition or one agreed upon by the masses. Some believe it exemplifies the wetness of pies, other nuts and some apples. As such, Gaylen a young hero is sent to survey all the citizens in the kingdom to determine what they understand to mean delicious. The castle is soon rocked by disagreements which mirror the disagreements in the kingdom and it is not long before many people believe consensus will be impossible to achieve. Added to the problems in making the dictionary is a power hungry man that has been going all over the countryside stirring trouble and trying to foment a coup. An interesting parallel thread kicks off in the prologue that provides definitions of magical/mystical creatures that have been around for years but humans have forgotten them since they are so rare. There is Ardis the mermaid who had in her possession a magical key that can open and close a residence at the bottom of the lake. Some human had stolen the key and lost it and as Gaylen criss-crosses the kingdom, he learns more about the magical beings and how important they are in the future of the kingdom.

“The Moon Over High Street” by Natalie Babbitt is the story of Joe Casimir, a man who needs someone to help him make a difficult choice. But how to choose the right person is in itself a difficult proposition. But the millionaire Mr. Boulderwall knows who Joe needs to choose as he believes millionaires are best suited at determining the best choices. But Sope Electric’s Vinnie thinks Joe should not work with millionaires. He thinks millionaires are too full of themselves. The problem is Vinnie had no real advice for Joe just like his Aunt Myra and his grandmother.