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    The Eyes of the Amaryllis
    The Eyes of the Amaryllis
    The Eyes of the Amaryllis
    Audiobook3 hours

    The Eyes of the Amaryllis

    Written by Natalie Babbitt

    Narrated by Alyssa Bresnahan

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Many years ago, Jenny's grandfather had been captain of the brig Amaryllis, sunk at sea during a terrible storm. Gram and Jenny's father had stood on a bluff overlooking the sea, and watched in silent horror as the handsome ship was swallowed by merciless, churning waters. After that, Jenny's father couldn't get away from the sea fast enough. But Gram had stayed behind. Every night since the storm-for 30 years-Gram has combed the beach for a sign from her dead husband. Now, her ankle sprained, she needs Jenny to search for her. Every evening the two of them wander down to the shore and Jenny scans the sand for her grandmother. But there is someone else searching the beach besides Gram and Jenny, a dark figure who glides past them with little more than a nod and a muttered "good evening." Gram says his name is Seward, but she is strangely silent about him. What dangerous game has the three of them in its grasp?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJun 14, 2013
    ISBN9781470354190
    Author

    Natalie Babbitt

    Artist and writer Natalie Babbitt (1932–2016) is the award-winning author of the modern classic Tuck Everlasting and many other brilliantly original books for young people. As the mother of three small children, she began her career in 1966 by illustrating The Forty-Ninth Magician, written by her husband, Samuel Babbitt. She soon tried her own hand at writing, publishing two picture books in verse. Her first novel, The Search for Delicious, was published in 1969 and established her reputation for creating magical tales with profound meaning. Kneeknock Rise earned Babbitt a Newbery Honor in 1971, and she went on to write—and often illustrate—many more picture books, story collections, and novels. She also illustrated the five volumes in the Small Poems series by Valerie Worth. In 2002, Tuck Everlasting was adapted into a major motion picture, and in 2016 a musical version premiered on Broadway. Born and raised in Ohio, Natalie Babbitt lived her adult life in the Northeast.

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    Reviews for The Eyes of the Amaryllis

    4/5

    8 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I must correct one other review. To be honest, it made me wonder if the reviewer had actually read the book. It is repeated over and over in the book that the ship broke up on rocks within sight of the location where the story takes place, not hundreds of miles away. It is also repeatedly mentioned that the grandmother and her son actually witnessed the sinking of the ship captained by her husband, which is why the son is so traumatized by the sea.Also, it was obvious to my 13yo daughter that the sign the grandmother was waiting for was from her husband, a sign that their love carried beyond the grave. The story is, at its heart, a romance. It is a book about love not dying just because people do. How anyone can read the ending of the book and not get that is boggling to me.Personally, I adored this book. It was a delight to find something on my daughter's school reading list that wasn't the typical "Death by Newbery Medal" book. The story was uplifting, and the protagonist had a coming of age that didn't involve being scarred for life. Happy endings in children's 'classics' are a rarity to be savored.
    • 4/5
      The book was fine, but I had expected better. When a sailor is lost at sea, his wife chooses to wait by the shore for a sign from him, while his son moves away and wants nothing to do with the ocean. His daughter visits her grandmother for the summer and things happen.
    • 4/5
      How would you react if you stood on the shore and watched helplessly while a ship carrying a loved one was dashed on the rocks within your sight, and you could do nothing to help? Would you feel closer to your lost loved one by staying in that spot? Or would the place fill you with fear and anger?Jenny goes to spend time with her widowed grandmother in a home by the sea, and is drawn into Gram's search for a "sign" of her long-lost sea captain husband. Jenny ponders, for the first time, the possibility of things that cannot be explained. This is a gentle tale is of mystery, imagination, and family love -- and I loved it. It's set in an era of sailing ships and horses and buggies, but the themes are timeless.
    • 5/5
      Jenny Reade is sent to Cape Cod to care for her grandmother Geneva, who has broken an ankle. Jenny is completely out of her element. Years earlier her sailor grandfather was lost at sea. Because Jenny's father has never come to terms with losing his father he barely visits his mother, who has remained in their seaside house, and he has never brought Jenny to meet her grandmother. As a result Jenny has never seen the sea.The story takes on a mystical air when Jenny's true task comes to light. She is not there to care for Geneva while she is off her feet like her father thinks. She has been summoned to watch for her grandfather's ghost ship. Geneva strongly believes that her dead husband will send her a sign from the depths of the ocean, so every night Jenny walks the beaches in search of such a sign.
    • 3/5
      This abruptly written book struck me as abrupt and essentially, just not very believable. It is the fable-like tale of a girl named Jenny who goes to visit her odd grandmother over the summer. Years ago, Gran's husband drowned at sea when his ship, the Amaryllis, sunk with no survivors. Nevertheless, she walks the beach every day, hoping for a sign, or for something to wash ashore to truly convince her that he is gone. Jenny helps her grandmother on these nightly beach-combings, where they occasionally come across an eerie man named Seward. When they finally do find something, Gran is overjoyed, but it seems that Seward, and the sea, want it back.Before I launch into all of the bad, I must say that I did like the fairytale feel that this book has to it. Almost-ghosts and forgotten shipwrecks and treasure hunting a sea with a mind of its own? It sounds like perfect material to me. The children's perspective was also charming, though I think that the simple writing was also a major part of this books downfall.Things are written quite abruptly. Maybe Babbitt was trying to shorten her book, or keep things going quickly, but many events seemed to be brushed over in a cursory manner, giving me the impression that they weren't all that important. This especially shows in the conversations, which never last more than a few paragraphs, and always cut straight to the point. The biggest problem with this book was, in my opinion, the way that it simply doesn't seem very believable. Gran is waiting for something to wash up on her beach from the Amaryllis - anything at all, a button, or a piece of timber from the ship, perhaps. But this was not making very much sense to me. The Amaryllis didn't sink right offshore, it sunk hundreds of miles away. The possibility of anything from the wreck washing onto that particular little beach, out of ALL the beaches, is virtually an impossibility. Also, even if a button or a rope or scrap of wood DID wash ashore, how would anyone have any way of knowing what ship it came from? Gran does tell us that she doesn't think it will be an accident for something to wash ashore, but "a sign." She keeps calling it a sign, over and over. But what does she mean? A sign of what, from whom? Also, whenever Jenny finds something, she hears the wind off of the sea call to her "true to you." Cute, but when I thought about, that didn't make any sense either. The sea never wanted her to find the first artifact from the ship - it made that quite clear by raising up an enormous hurricane to come steal it back. So why would it say this? Or is the wind saying this, which is a separate thing from the sea?There were more aspects of the story I found unlikely, such as Nicholas Irving's tale of seeing the sunken Amaryllis, or the fact that the part of the ship that meant the most to Gran just happens to be the one that drifts ashore.Maybe I am being too factual and not allowing myself to see the fairytale elements of the story. Of course the things that happen to Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and those people aren't *likely,* but they make a good story.I personally do not think it is my fault, however, because the elements here did not make a good story, but a failed one.
    • 4/5
      This is yet another Young Adult book that deals with a sensitive subject. After enjoying Tuck Everlasting, I wanted to read more by this author. She did not disappoint!I liked this breezy read. It was just what I needed, ie a well-written tale with sensitive characters and a plot that was not trite but told with depth of feeling.This is a story of a grandmother who lost a beloved husband to the sea and remains in her quaint sea shore house waiting for the ocean to give a sign from her long ago love.This is a story of a granddaughter who visits and is transformed by the events that shaped lives so long ago.This is a story of a son who, unlike his mother, cannot forgive the sea.The images are crisp and I could almost feel the roar of the waves, and the salty, stormy, tempest torn tumult.