Born:
July  28, 1932
Dayton, Ohio,

Current Home:
Providence, Rhode Island,

Natalie Babbitt

Biography

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I was born and raised in Ohio. During my childhood, I spent most of my time drawing and reading fairy tales and myths. My mother, an amateur landscape and portrait painter, gave me art lessons. She always made sure I had enough paper, paint, pencils, and encouragement. I grew up wanting only to be an illustrator. I studied art at Laurel School in Cleveland and at Smith College.

Right after graduation, I married Samuel Fisher Babbitt, an academic administrator. I spent the next ten years in Connecticut, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C., raising our children, Christopher, Tom, and Lucy.

My husband took time out from his academic career to write a novel and discovered that he didn't enjoy the long, lonely hours that writing demanded. My sister produced a comic novel, which required substantial rewriting. I learned three valuable things from observing my husband's and sister's forays into the writer's world: You have to give writing your full attention. You have to like the revision process. And you have to like to be alone. But it was years before I put any of this to good use.

In 1966, my husband and I collaborated on a children's book called The Forty-ninth Magician — he wrote it and I illustrated it. With encouragement from our editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux, I continued producing children's books even after my husband became too busy to write the stories.

I write for children because I am interested in fantasy and the possibilities for experience of all kinds before the time of compromise. I believe that children are far more perceptive and wise than American books give them credit for being.

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  The Teacher Store

  Jack Plank Tells Tales by Natalie Babbitt Yes, Jack Plank started out to be a pirate. His shipmates all liked him, and their ship, the Avarice, was certainly very beautiful. But after a while it was clear that he wasn't much good a plundering. He just didn't have the knack for it. So what to do? Jack did the only thing he could do - he went ashore to look for another line of work. The town was called Saltwash, on the coast of the Caribbean Sea, and he had a lot of helpful advice from the people in Mrs. DelFresno's boardinghouse. Some $15.95 Paperback Book | Grades 4-Up

  
  Jack Plank Tells Tales
  Grades 4-Up $15.95
  
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  The Teacher Store
  	The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson and Garth Williams A story of a homeless man in Paris and the fatherless family with which he becomes involved. "Told with warmth and humor. A charming and memorable story." - ALA Booklist $5.95 Paperback Book | Grades 3-5

  
  The Family Under the Bridge
  Grades 3-5 $5.95