The Eyes of the Amaryllis

by Babbitt, Natalie

• ISBN13: 9780312370084
• ISBN10: 0312370083
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-08-21
• Publisher: Square Fish

Summary

Experience love and loss in this enchanting sea mystery.

Author Biography

A gifted artist and writer, Natalie Babbitt’s novels are inspired by a brilliance and imagination that is completely original. She began her career in 1966 with the publication of a picture book, The Forty-Ninth Magician, a collaboration with her husband, Samuel Fisher Babbitt. Her first novel, The Search for Delicious, established her gift for writing magical tales with a more profound meaning embedded within them. Kneeknock Rise earned her a Newbery Honor Medal, but it is Tuck Everlasting which has insured Babbitt’s place in the history of children’s literature. This modern classic, which has also been made recently into a major motion picture starring Alexis Bledel, William Hurt, and Sissy Spacek, asks an enduring and powerful question: If we could live forever, would we want to?
     Babbitt has written six more novels including The Eyes of the Amaryllis and Goody Hall—each one presenting her unique vision of an enchanted world. Her latest novel, Jack Plank Tells Tales, was published in Spring 2007.
     Natalie Babbitt lives in Providence, Rhode Island, and is a grandmother of three. When asked what she wants readers to remember about her books, she replied, “the questions without answers.”

Table of Contents

“The plot is simple but so well written and carefully constructed that its familiar elements—an estranged mother and son, an undying love—undergo a sea-change, too. And, for all its apparent simplicity, the images evoked are deep and complex.”—School Library Journal, Starred Review

“Having read this book, one feels changed, haunted for life.”—Minneapolis Tribune

“The language is as exotic as an underwater treasure trove.”—Book World

“Mrs. Babbitt paints late 19th century domestic and aquatic scenes with enormous sensitivity and uses language masterfully to achieve action and imagery. The characters of the widow and her granddaughter are superbly drawn. . . . The romance and symbolism will appeal strongly to adolescent girls.”—Poughkeepsie Journal

“This is a skillfully told story, offering a haunting and challenging read for the middle reader.”—The Baltimore Sun

“Babbitt wastes nary a word, deftly carving characters and events into a gripping tale, successfully using the sea both as an impelling atmospheric force and as an effective protagonist.”—Booklist

 

“The reader is treated to a poignant awareness of the power of love and its ability to shape the lives of those who experience it most deeply.”—St. Louis Post Dispatch

“Natalie Babbitt’s lightness of touch as she broaches deep and delicate themes is something admirable.”—The Christian Science Monitor

“An intricate combination of patterns, like a jacquard weave, the book succeeds as a well-wrought narrative in which a complex philosophical theme is developed through the balanced, subtle use of symbol and imagery. It is a rare story, accessible to the discriminating preadolescent; because of its perfect scale and transcendent style, it neither diminishes the subject nor the audience.”—The Horn Book Magazine

“An atmospheric, romantic tale.”—Kirkus Reviews

“‘Musical’ is a descriptor often applied, even over-applied, to poetry. But prose is just as obliged to rhythm and cadence, to the hum of warm vowels and the crackle of consonants. And there is music in the language of Natalie Babbitt’s 16th novel, which is fitting because she is so often describing the ocean. If you listen you can hear it roaring inside her sentences. Set in an unspecified bygone era but free of fancified old-timey verbiage, this book is a little gem—something to read in one evening, tucked up in bed.”—Philadelphia Inquirer

“Natalie Babbitt wastes no words in the telling of this gripping tale. Love story for sure, ghost story, maybe, but a story sure to entertain and haunt ten- to twelve-year-old readers.”—Armchair Interviews

“. . . the perfect time to stock your shelves with these elegantly designed editions.”—School Library Journal’s “Extra Helping” on Square Fish’s Babbitt reissues

Supplemental Materials

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