Natalie Babbitt | |
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Born |
Natalie Zane Moore July 28, 1932 Dayton, Ohio, U.S. |
Died | October 31, 2016 Hamden, Connecticut, U.S. |
(aged 84)
Nationality | American |
Education | BA (Arts) |
Alma mater | Smith College |
Occupation | Writer, illustrator |
Years active | 1966–2012 |
Spouse(s) | Samuel Fisher Babbitt |
Children | Three |
Awards |
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Natalie Zane Babbitt (née Moore; July 28, 1932 – October 31, 2016) was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. Her acclaimed 1975 novel Tuck Everlasting has been adapted into two feature Christopher Award, and was the U.S. nominee for the biennial international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1982.
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 had 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, Oneida County, New York.
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 fourth 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.