Natalie Babbitt published her first book of young adult fiction in 1967. She originally wanted to be an illustrator of children's books rather than a writer, and her teachers had encouraged her to polish her drawing skills at school, where she majored in art. She first illustrated a book written by her husband in 1966 before writing her own book the next year. The style of her writing is direct and spare yet poetic. she is also noted for treating serious subjects with a light touch. An examination of three of her books--Kneeknock Rise, Herbert Rowbarge, and Goody Hall--will show her technique and how successful she is in conveying her themes and ideas in her fiction.
Kneeknock Rise (1970) begins with an introductory passage that embodies the theme to be explored in the remainder of the book:
Facts are the barren branches on which we hang the dear, obscuring foliage of our dreams.
Babbitt opens her book with a description of the setting and its history, in this case the history of the Mammoth Mountains and why they were so named. The people of the village of Instep are also portrayed, along with the particular pride they take in one of the Mammoth Mountains, Kneeknock Rise, a mountain that reached high up into the mist and on which some unknown creature lives, a creature called the Megrimum. This monster and the place where it lives occupy a central position in the consciousness of the people of Instep, who react to the disappearance of sheep and the souring of milk by blaming the occurrences on the creature:
These things were considered by some to be the work of the creature on the cliff, while others refused to believe that it ever left its misty nest. But they all had their favorite charms against it.
The creature has become so important in the minds of the people that it gives them an importance they would not otherwise have. They are the village with their own monster high on Kneeknock Rise. As Babbit...