‘Tuck Everlasting’ Author Dies At Age 84, Book Helped Kids Understand Death
Author Natalie Babbitt.
Credit: Samuel F. Babbitt, Courtesy of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group
Natalie Babbitt, the 84-year-old author of Tuck Everlasting, died Monday at her home in Hamden, Connecticut.
Tuck Everlasting left a big mark on young readers. It’s a story of a magical spring that grants eternal life to anyone who drinks from it – and a girl who has to decide whether to live forever or accept her eventual death. Babbitt told NPR’s Melissa Block last year that she decided to write Tuck Everlasting in 1975 after she realized her 4-year-old daughter was terrified of death.
“It seemed to me that I could write a story about how it’s something that everybody has to do, and it’s not a bad thing.”