Eyes of the Amaryllis [Import] [Hardcover]

Natalie Babbitt (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0701123516
• ISBN-13: 978-0701123512
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,948,363 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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.'

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Eyes of The Amarylis- a look through the eyes of love, December 4, 1999

By 

Kate (Nebraska, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Eyes of the Amaryllis (Paperback)

When I first read this book, I was blown away. I was only 11, but I could still grasp the power of the story. Jenny, an 11 year old girl is sent to live with her grandmother by the sea shore. The mystery begins. Jenny's grandmother tells her the story of her grandfather's death, the figure head of a ship washes up on the shore, and a mysterious man appears at their doorstep. A very grand mystery as well as an unforgettable love story. I recommend this book to anyone with a heart that beats and feels and loves.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Eyes of the Amaryllis, November 21, 1999

By 

Kim (usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Eyes of the Amaryllis (Paperback)

This is the BEST BOOK I EVER READ! It is very well written.It is a story about a girl who comes to live with her grandmother bythe sea and then finds out she has been waiting for thirty years for a sign from her husband, whom she loved dearly, who died in a shipwreck just off the shore. It is a ghost story, but also a story of neverending love.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mysterious fathoms below, June 5, 2005

By 

E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Eyes of the Amaryllis (Paperback)

Before reading "The Eyes of the Amaryllis", I'd harbored the secret suspicion that Natalie Babbitt's best known work, "Tuck Everlasting", was a fluke. I don't mean to say that the great writing found in that book was of a fluke-like nature. I mean that I thought of Babbitt as a children's author who preferred to write realistic fiction and once, in the case of "Tuck", wrote something fantastical. I don't know where I got that idea. Maybe it came from "Tuck" itself. There's something about that book that feels a little too natural. Like the author would much rather be writing about hardcore issues and is just using the whole "living forever" thing as a metaphor. So when I picked up "The Eyes of the Amaryllis", I thought I'd know what to expect. A straightforward story about a girl and her grandmother by the sea. What I got instead was a supernatural thriller in which two mortal souls go head to head with forces they cannot hope to understand. Thrilling? You don't know the half of it.

Though named after her father's mother, Jenny Reade has never visited the old woman at her house by the sea. This is mostly because Jenny's father is afraid of that cruel old ocean. Years ago, when he was just a teen, her dad watched in horror as his father's ship, the Amaryllis, went down in a catastrophic storm. Since that time he has been afraid of the vastness of the ocean while his mother, the hardened woman Geneva Reade, has waited patiently for a sign from her drowned husband. When Jenny comes to stay with Geneva for a couple weeks, she thinks she's just going to do some chores and play by the seaside. Instead, she becomes enmeshed in a wild adventure. For while Geneva's husband does indeed send his wife a sign, the sea is not happy with the gift and demands it back. By force, as it happens.

Reading this book, I found it was rather similar to "Daughter of the Sea" by Berlie Doherty. Both books praise the ocean to no end, but if I were to choose the stronger of the two, "The Eyes of the Amaryllis" wins hands down. Babbitt's in fine form here. The reader begins the tale with as much healthy skepticism as Jenny herself, and ends up believing her grandmother's wild stories just as the heroine does. There are beautiful descriptive passages here and a wonderfully exciting climax with a hurricane. There are ghosts, drowned men, and mysterious presents that are never meant to be kept. I've little doubt that Babbitt herself has spent a lot of time with the ocean. This book is a love story to a powerful, dangerous thing.

For those readers who enjoyed "Tuck Everlasting" and wouldn't mind a little more Babbitty weirdness in their reading diet, "The Eyes of the Amaryllis" is a fine follow-up. It's not particularly long (so reluctant readers will rejoice) and the plot is fast-paced without ever feeling stilted. For any kid who hungers for tales of ghosts and mysteries, go no farther than this fog-swept tale.