about the book
After unknowingly drinking magic spring water, the Tuck family realizes, slowly at first, that they are no longer aging, and that they can survive injuries that should kill them. Their family and friends around them age, but they do not. While at first it might seem awesome to have eternal life, the Tuck family soon learns that being unable to die has its price.
The years go by, and the Tucks are careful to guard their secret and live as quietly as they can. However, one day a girl named Winnie Foster accidentally discovers their secret. The Tucks decide to take her to their home and explain why living forever at the same age is not as great as it sounds.
Then, it happens. Winnie is followed by a man who overhears the secret about the spring of eternal youth. The man captures Winnie and holds her ransom, forcing the Tucks to reveal the location of the spring so he can market the water. An altercation ensues, the mysterious man is killed, and Mae Tuck is arrested for the murder, sentenced to hang. But what will happen when she is on the gallows and everyone sees she can’t die?
about the author
Natalie Babbitt was born in Dayton, Ohio. She spent much of her childhood drawing and reading fairy tales and myths, taking art lessons from her mother, an amateur portrait and landscape painter. Natalie’s mother always made sure she had paper, paint, pencils, and, most important, plenty of encouragement!
Natalie grew up wanting only to be an illustrator and so studied art at Laurel School in Cleveland and at Smith College. After graduating she married Samuel Fisher Babbitt and spent the next ten years in Connecticut, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C., raising their children—Christopher, Tom, and Lucy.
In that time, her husband tried to write a novel, but didn’t like the long, lonely hours needed. Her sister made a comic novel that needed lots of rewriting. From her husband’s and sister’s attempts, Natalie learned the value of giving writing your full attention, that you have to actually like the revision process, and that you need to like being alone. It would be a few years before Natalie put all this to use—in 1966 she and her husband collaborated on The Forty-ninth Magician, and after her husband got too busy to continue writing them, Natalie took over writing the series. She has been a writer ever since!
Natalie writes children’s stories because she is interested in fantasy and all the possibilities it holds for expanding young readers’ minds before they grow too old and start compromising their principles.
Sources:
Author biography: Scholastic
Author biography: Encyclopedia
Also by Natalie Babbitt:
The Moon Over High Street. Michael di Capua Books. 2012.
Jack Plank Tells Tales. Michael di Capua Books. 2007.
The Eyes of the Amaryllis. Farrar Straus Giroux. 1977.
Kneeknock Rise. Farrar Straus Giroux. 1970.
The Search for Delicious. Farrar Straus Giroux. 1969.
read more!
Kneeknock Rise by Natalie Babbitt
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Savvy by Ingrid Law
Mibs Beaumont is excited to celebrate her thirteenth birthday. That day is when each of her family members discovers their “savvy”—their unique magical power. But when her father is injured in a terrible accident, Mibs hopes her savvy will be strong enough to save him.
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Felicity Pickle is not like other collectors: she collects words; words people say, think, and do. Her mother is constantly on the move and Felicity is tired of always being the new kid on the block, so the word she wants more than anything is home. When her mother’s van rolls into the little Midnight Gulch, Felicity hopes she has finally found home …and maybe even a friend or two!